Daemons and Dragons - Revised
by Neale
Summary: This is the continuation of Chuck Versus the Daemon - Revised. For those coming in here it's an AU Steampunk Chuck set in the 1870s. This part of the story is complete, the next part is Daemons' Children - Revised
1. Rescue and Reunion

**As promised, this is part two of the Chuck Versus the Daemon series.**

 **For anyone coming in here, this is an AU Steampunk Chuck story set in the early 1870s. Casey is a US Marshal and Sarah, Chuck, Ellie and Carina are Secret Service Agents. Most of the characters are based on the series (or at least my reading of them), and where possible, the theme of the series' episodes is used as a framework, though elements of some of my other stories are used as well.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

Over a week after Sarah had sent the message to start the search for Kathleen and her daughter, the people at Tolbert, Ives and Jager still hadn't found a thing (the search was hampered by the fact that the maiden aunt that she'd gone to live with had died about five years before) and John was getting impatient.

John's anger at the lack of results was putting everyone on edge, so they almost breathed a sigh of relief when people started talking about a tall Chinese woman who had just come to town, looking for a Chinese boy and asking questions about the Tong that Anna was hiding from.

Maybe some action may sooth jangled nerves, they could only hope.

They all suspected some kind of trap at first, but Sarah, Chuck, John and Hattie all had the feeling that this woman was really looking for the boy, as did Anna.

It was Anna who raised out a key point to Chuck, that this woman was showing every sign of being a warrior priestess, what Anna had been training to be before she was taken away, and that function carried a strong presumption of honesty and integrity with it.

With that consideration, it was decided (after much argument) that Anna, Chuck and Sarah would contact this woman to find out what in fact she was doing in Los Angeles, while John, Hattie and a detail of Tom and a dozen of his men waited nearby in case they were needed.

When they located the woman, Anna went to speak to her first, but she was met with suspicion, so Chuck went to talk to her. As with every other Chinese person he'd talked to in the old dialect, she was shocked, but at least this helped get past her suspicions about Anna. Once she was more inclined to talk, to some degree at least, they got her to come back to Jane's house to so that they could do so off the street.

Once they were inside the house, the woman turned to Sarah and spoke to her in Chinese, but Sarah shook her head, asking Chuck to make her apologies and explain that she didn't speak Chinese, they were rather surprised when the woman responded to her in quite good English.

"Well, that is a relief, I was beginning to wonder what sort of world that I had stepped into here, with everyone speaking Chinese to me."

With the ice broken, they all introduced themselves and brought John, Hattie and Tom in as well, Anna made tea while they waited for a trooper to go to the stable to get Ellie, Andy and Hank.

Their visitor was Cho Mei-Ling, and the reason that she was in Los Angeles was that she was looking for her brother, Li-Wei. With the volatile political climate in China, and in particular Li Hongzhang being appointed as the Viceroy of Zhili, her father had deemed it prudent to send the family's heir, her twelve year old half brother, to America to get an education in a safer and more stable environment than was available in China at the moment and Mei-Ling had been recalled from the temple to escort her brother safely to the boarding school in the America.

The trip across the Pacific Ocean on the clipper ship had gone well, taking them just over a month to reach San Francisco, but when they'd arrived, it was obvious that word of their trip had preceded them. They were attacked and captured by one of the Tong at the hotel where they were waiting for the train that was to carry them across to New York, where Li was to go to school.

It was obvious from Mei-Ling's aggravation that this had been a traumatic experience for her, but at that point, her listeners did not realise just how traumatic it had been. She explained that she'd escaped and began looking for Li. She'd managed to extract the information from some of the men that she'd questioned that, when it was discovered that she'd escaped, the Tong had sent Li to Los Angeles with two of their hatchet men to hide him from her, Smooth Lau and Jason Wang.

These names triggered memories for Chuck. He saw that Smooth Lau had been in training to be a warrior priestess when she was rounded up to be sold into indentured service when her family fell from grace, just like Anna, but she'd caught the eye of a senior member of the Tong and he'd taken her to be his concubine, as well as an enforcer for the Tong. Smooth Lau had apparently enjoyed this life, because the memories he recalled showed her approaching her duties as an enforcer with great gusto. Jason Wang was just a hatchet man, but the memories that Chuck had on him showed him carrying out his duties with equal gusto.

Sarah saw Chuck shudder as he recalled what these two had done, but he covered it up well enough that anyone who didn't know him would have missed it. When he said "I'm aware of them, and now we know that they're in Los Angeles, we will hasten to rescue your brother and get him safely to his school in New York so that you may return to your temple", no-one but John and Ellie showed any indication that they saw him covering up anything, but Mei-Ling reacted to his last statement.

As soon as they saw the look of shame cross over her face they realised what had happened to her, so it was no surprise when she said. "I can never return to the temple, or my family, I am unclean!"

She had to take a moment to compose herself before she could continue.

"They decided to send me to the brothels, as all they wanted was Li to use against my family. One of the Tong elders said that no-one would expect a woman of my age to still be a virgin, so they told the men to give me the experience I needed to work there. It three days before I was left alone with one of them and had the opportunity to kill him and escape."

A horrified silence filled in the room, then Ellie and Anna immediately rushed to try to comfort her. Sarah and Hattie (and Chuck and John) wanted to comfort her, too, but they were frozen with horror at what she had just said, and didn't know quite what to do.

After a while, Chuck stood and walked across the room to stand in front of her, bowing before addressing her in old Chinese. _'I sorrow deeply for what has been done to you._ _W_ _e will help you rescue your brother and get him to safety._ _T_ _hen, if you wish, we will assist you in avenging yourself against those who did this to you. Once that is completed, it would be an honour if you would join us._ _T_ _he shame in this is not on you Cho Mei-Ling, it is on those who did this to you._ _Y_ _ou will have a place with us for as long as you wish.'_

Mei-Ling stood and bowed to him, responding in the same language. _'I thank you for your wishes and assistance, and for the offer that you have made. I do not believe that I am worthy of_ _this_ _, however I will_ _consider_ _your offer_ _carefully_ _and give you_ _an_ _answer once we have delivered my brother safely to_ _his_ _school.'_

Sarah signalled to Chuck and the others to leave her and Ellie to talk to Mei-Ling, so they did so. She started by telling her that they would be determining the locations of all the Tong houses so they could plan how to go in and recover Li-Wei.

Mei-Ling shook her head, saying that she needed to do it, they wouldn't have the skills to get in and bring him out safely.

Sarah looked her in the eye. "Mei-Ling. Chuck, John, Hattie and I are spies, some of the best, and we have a picked military team of thirty four to back us up. I promise you that we can do this!"

"For now, however, we need to put that aside. The reason I sent the others away is that you really need to let Ellie examine you, she is a doctor and a very good one. After what you've gone through you could have damage inside which needs to be tended to, as well as other issues like the pox and pregnancy. Please let Ellie look at you and see if there's any care you need. If you are up to it you can come with us when we go to rescue your brother but if not, I promise you that we will get him back safe for you."

Mei-Ling looked at her for a while, then nodded reluctantly, because in truth, she knew that she did have damage inside, she was hurting a lot.

When Ellie examined Mei-Ling, she had some internal damage, but it didn't appear as though anything would be permanent and Ellie did what she could to ease the pain and assist the healing process. She showed no signs of the pox, but Ellie gave her a treatment anyway in case it wasn't showing yet. There was no signs of pregnancy yet of course, but she gave her what Chuck had come up with for that (they had discussed what treatments there were in the memories he had and Chuck had provided treatments for this and other common problems like the pox) to try and finish anything that might be starting.

* * *

With Anna's help, they quickly mapped out all of the Tong houses and who they belonged to. Chuck was adamant that they needed to hit _all_ of the houses to cover up what they were doing as otherwise they were likely to work it out and come after them to recover Li-Wei. The others agreed with this, but they could see from the hatred in his eyes for things like the Tong that there was more to it than that.

It was John who brought up a bigger issue. "What about the girls? At least a quarter of the Tongs' money is from the brothels. We can't leave them there, and if we set them free they'll just round them up again."

They were having this discussion after closing at the Two Widows, as that was the only place they could, so Jane was there. "Between Bolonia and I, I'm sure we can find people who can keep the girls safe."

Chuck looked at her "Are they in town?"

That earned him a questioning look, so he explained "These girls won't be safe in town, because if anyone sees them the Tong will find them. The only place they can be safe is on a ranch or a farm that's far enough out of town that no-one's likely to find them."

She nodded musingly "OK…..Yes, I can think of a number of friends who can offer that."

Chuck looked at the information they had (and what it was bringing up in his head). "We could be looking at between thirty and fifty girls between these places, do we have any way of looking after that many girls?"

She thought for a moment and nodded "Yes, for a while, anyway."

That made him stop for a moment and ask. "Are there any ranches for sale at the moment a little way out of Los Angeles?"

She looked at him, confused, "I know of three I've had my eye on but could never get the money for, why?"

"Do any of them meet the criteria for what we've been discussing and are capable of taking at least fifty to sixty people? And if we gave you the money, could you arrange the purchase for us?"

She still looked confused. "At least two of them do, but where could you get that sort of money?"

"Never mind that. If you have the money, could you arrange the purchase?"

"Yes…?"

Chuck nodded at that, and looked around the table "Are we comfortable with that solution to the girls' problem?"

Heads were nodding, so after asking Jane if she could talk to those friends and confirm how many girls they could look after, they went on with their planning.

Even though she didn't have full mobility, Mei-Ling insisted on being part of this so Chuck set her up with the weapons she needed.

Like Sarah and the other spies, her eyes lit up when Chuck demonstrated the function of the hiders to her, so she had a pair of the .38s with hiders attached as her firearms for this operation like Chuck, Sarah and John, as they would be the other ones going in, at least at first.

While Hattie, Tom and his men were accomplished fighters, they weren't assassins, able to sneak into a place and take out the people inside without giving themselves away. Sarah and John were, and with the memories in his head, so was Chuck so they, plus Mei-Ling, would be the ones going into the Tong houses first.

Once they had control of the house, they'd let the others in to get the girls out, and clear out any valuables as well. This was to make it look like a rival Tong or gang was wiping out the opposition and taking everything. Some of Tom's men would also have the job of hacking up the bodies with hatchets, to make it look like the Tong had done it.

They wanted to keep Anna away from this but Hattie pointed out that, if Mei-Ling and Chuck were inside, who was going to talk to the girls and keep them calm once they got them out? The women in the group agreed with the logic of this so Chuck give in grudgingly.

As well as organising people to look after the girls, Jane had been using her business connections to get information about all the fast steamers heading for San Francisco which had capacity to take on a couple of dozen people in the next day or so, and she'd broached the matter about booking passages for those people in a hurry with those that she knew.

They'd also sent off instructions to the Tolbert, Ives and Jager to have a Pullman's Hotel car available in San Francisco within three days.

Chuck had spent a while preparing himself for this. As much as he did not like killing, he accepted the fact that anyone other than them, Li-Wei and the girls (or boys) who were being held captive in these houses would have to die. He also accepted that they may have to deal with the so-called law of Los Angeles as well, as most of those thugs were in the pay of the Tong anyway.

* * *

By the afternoon of the second day, they'd decided on the order that they were going to hit the houses, they had the weapons and equipment they needed and Jane had confirmed that she had at least fifteen friends on farms who would put up three to five girls for a while. Jane and Bolonia also said that they had a storehouse that they owned in an out of the way part of town that they could take the girls back to when they got them out. Ellie could see to their treatment (as they expected most of them to have similar issues to Mei-Ling), and they could be looked after there until they were taken out to the farms. They were ready to go in once it was dark.

They found Li-Wei in the third house they hit. They also found and dealt with Ben Lo Pan and his Lieutenants at the same time because by fortuitous chance they had all been at that house for a meeting with Lo Pan that night, so they'd wiped out the entire leadership of that Tong in Los Angeles. Smooth Lau and Jason Wang had also been there and they were eliminated as well.

By then they had the process working smoothly, they'd get in via a window and slip through the house, using knives where possible or throwing knives or the .38s with hiders if the Tong members they found were further away, and once most of them were dead, they'd let the others in. Mei or Chuck would explain to any girls they found what was happening and they'd be escorted to a wagon outside where Anna would look after them. They'd hack up the bodies with hatchets and clean out all the money, gold and anything else of value or interest in the house (Chuck had them collecting any and all documents found as well as the valuables) to make it look like a rival Tong had taken them out, then leave and move on to the next house.

They hit another dozen houses after that and it was after midnight by the time they were all back at the storehouse. As well as Li, they'd rescued 36 girls. Ellie had examined all of them, some of them were hurt worse than Mei had been, some had bad cases of the pox, and five were pregnant, three too far along to do anything about it. Ellie gave them the treatments that Chuck had come up with and left medicines with instructions for any of the girls who needed on-going treatment. The girls all knew English to some level, and they made sure that those with less English were sent along with other girls who spoke it better.

As they were treated and paired up with other girls, Mike, Al and Jeff had been taking the girls out to the farms when they had a wagon load to go. By about two in the morning, all the girls were safely in bed on the farms where they'd be looked after, they'd stashed the valuables and documents where they wouldn't be found, and Sarah and Chuck were at Jane's going through the plans to get them onto the steamer in the morning and purchase one of those ranches that they'd been discussing to give the girls a place to stay.

Jane was shocked when Chuck asked her how high she thought the price of the ranches could go, and after she thought about it and named a figure, he calmly counted that much out of the money chest, and then added a third more, just in case. All cash they took from the Tong houses and Miss Sasha had gone into the money chest, so it was a lot more packed than it usually was, but they didn't tell her that they generally carried more than enough cash to cover the figures she was talking about.

With the money in front of her, they told Jane that they'd leave the choice of the best place to her, and asked whether she could also help find trustworthy people to run and work the ranch. Once they had possession and it was being run by trusted people, they could move the girls there. They also asked whether Anna could keep an eye on the girls and make sure they were OK. Ben would assign troopers to make sure she was safe, but none of them could speak Chinese and wouldn't be able to reassure them.

* * *

Well before dawn Chuck, Sarah, Ellie, John, Hattie, Tom, Andy, Adele, Elijah, Isaiah, Hank, Bill, Weed, Mei-Ling, Li-Wei and nine other troopers were assembled in Al's stable, ready to leave. They had both of their wagons hitched to a team of six of their mules. The trunks and travel bags they were taking were loaded up and the beds of both wagons had been lined with bedrolls to give some padding, as they expected the ride would be rough. Al and Mike were driving the wagons, and each would have a trooper up on the driver's seat with him.

Once they'd said goodbye to Jane, Ben and the others, they climbed into the wagons and headed off to the docks, to catch the early departure of the steamer.

It had been the difficult to explain to Li why he had to pretend to be a servant, but he was a bright boy, and between his sister's explanation and the experiences he'd been through himself, he understood well enough. For the rest, it was easy as Adele, Elijah and Isaiah were well versed in this by now and Mei had no trouble pulling off the role of the maid. Hank, Bill and Weed were playing senior clerks and the other nine troopers were clerks and guards.

When they arrived at the docks around dawn, John and Hank finalised the arrangements for their passage on the steamer and went back to collect the others. By then all their luggage had been unloaded from the wagons onto hand carts and everyone had gotten themselves presentable. They thanked Mike and Al for their help, reminding Al of the details that Jane needed to send off to the law firm, said their goodbyes, and strolled down to the pier, ordering the troopers pushing the handcarts about to set the image of who they were.

As they boarded, they were escorted straight to their cabins, and once behind closed doors the gun trunks were opened to give easy access to their repeaters and carbines. As they were only attended by their own staff, they never had any of the ship's staff in their cabins to see the weapons they had in there.

While they were on edge, there were no issues on the passage to San Francisco, and when they docked there, they were met by a law clerk from the local firm working with Tolbert, Ives and Jager with carriages and a wagon to take them to the train that was due to leaving in about an hour.

They were transferred onto the train as a wealthy party with their servants and guards, as such they didn't attract much attention, and their 'servants' were ignored altogether. They were pleased to be greeted by Otis's smiling face when they boarded the Hotel car, and he confirmed that the cook had been cancelled as they'd insisted that their 'personal chef' would do all their cooking. This news let them relax as Otis was almost part of the family, so they could drop the act they put on for others.

As soon as they were on-board, Adele confirmed that all the supplies that they'd requested were stocked. After a bit of a struggle, they settled on Otis using 'Miss May' and 'Master Lee' for Mei-Ling and Li-Wei.

It had been decided on the passage up that Sarah, Chuck, Ellie and Adele would take one drawing room and Mei, Li and Hattie would take the other. John, Tom, Andy and Hank would share the stateroom with the rest of the men in the open sections.

They all breathed a sigh of relief once the train had left Oakland, heading for Sacramento, as that meant that the Tong of San Francisco were behind them.

Sarah and Chuck had a few discussions with Mei along the way across the Continent.

One was about Li's school. Sarah pointed out that if the Viceroy and the Tong knew enough to find and capture them in San Francisco, there was a good chance that they also knew about the Boarding School he had been enrolled in, so that would most likely be a trap. Sarah's suggestion, which Mei went along with, was to cancel his enrolment at that school, get a refund of the moneys paid and enrol him in another school under a different name. Mei agreed with that, but it took effort to convince Li. Mei approved when Li chose Li-Qiang as his new name because he had to be strong for his family, so the name he was to be enrolled under was Li-Qiang Kuang (they had to use the western order).

Chuck had another suggestion that Mei understood was more for her than Li, though it did protect him. This was to point out to her father that it wasn't safe to send any details of Li-Wei's location back to China, given that the Viceroy's people obviously had access to their information, otherwise how would they have known where to find them in San Francisco? The safest plan was for her to stay on in America and watch over Li-Wei, to hide him.

Mei didn't know how this man knew their culture so well, but he clearly understood that she could not go back to their family, or the temple, after what had been done to her, and he was offering her a chance of a new life here, without her family knowing of her shame.

Chuck looked her in the eye and spoke to her in Chinese. _'_ _As I_ _told you_ _before_ _Ch_ _o_ _Mei-Ling_ _, t_ _he dishonour is not your's, you were defeated by forces t_ _oo great to_ _overcome. We honour you and offer you a new life, and a new family if you_ _will_ _have_ _us. We w_ _ish for_ _you to join us and work with us. You can use our facilities to watch over Li and hide him._ _I also pledge to do what is_ _necessary_ _to help you_ _avenge yourself on_ _those in San Francisco who wronged you._ _'_

When they arrived in New York and moved into their apartments in Memphis House, Mei looked around, wanting to ask questions but not sure that she had the right.

Once there, they fitted Li out with a new wardrobe and replaced everything possible that he'd lost when they were taken.

Sarah, as Samuel Walton, accompanied Mei to examine a number of schools, until they selected the one which seemed the best option for Li. It was a surprise to Mei and Li to see Sarah masquerading as a man, but they took it well.

All arrangements were made through Tolbert, Ives and Jager, and they'd be notified of anything and everything to do with Li. Mei wasn't really happy that Li was enrolled as her son, with Tolbert, Ives and Jager for his secondary contact, but she had to admit that this gave her more control over what happened to him.

While they were in New York, Mei visited Li when she could and she was happy to see that he was settling in and enjoying himself.

* * *

They did have two jobs in New York that had nothing to do with Mei and her brother, the first being to install Harry Quinn as the second junior partner at Tolbert, Ives and Jager (which of course created quite a bit of grumbling among the other lawyers working there), and the second being to take over the search for Kathleen McHugh and her daughter.

They quickly discovered why their law firm's searches for Kathleen McHugh had come up empty, as Kathleen had gotten married about eight years ago. When he heard that, John was all for dropping everything and heading back to California, but Sarah surprised him with the strength of her reaction to that.

She pushed him into a chair and got right in his face. "No! As you well know Uncle John, since I was seven the closest thing I've had to caring parents has been you, Uncle Sam, Aunt Julia, and Tante Jeanne and the others in New Orleans. Not having parents has left a hole in my life. Your daughter has a father and I'll be damned if I'll let you leave without letting her know that!"

John looked at Chuck, but he wasn't about to go against Sarah. His expression also said that he agreed with her, as did Ellie, Hattie, Tom and Andy's.

Even Mei bought into it, saying. "She is right, John, your daughter deserves a chance to know her father."

John looked defiantly at them for about a minute, then slumped and nodded. With the money and influence of Memphis Trading, it wasn't difficult to wrangle invitations to a function that Kathleen and her husband would be attending.

It was amusing, but also moving, to see how hesitant John was as he asked Mei if she would accompany him to the function. On the face of it, the argument he presented was logical, that if he turned up alone Kathleen and her husband would believe that he was there to get her back, but there was also a vulnerability about him here that he hadn't let anyone see before.

He knew that they would all be there supporting him, but he wasn't sure how he would handle seeing the woman that he had been hoping to marry with the man that she actually _did_ marry. He had a feeling that he would be needing someone right there with him to help him get through this.

Hattie went to him and stretched up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek, saying. "Don't worry Johnny, it will be all right, I promise." Tom was watching, but he saw this for what it was, giving a friend support in a time of need, and was happy with that.

Mei was also looking on, and she understood both what John was asking and what Hattie was doing. That made her decision for her and she nodded, saying. "Yes John, I would be happy to accompany you to this function."

He gave her a grateful smile, and so did Hattie.

With that decided, they all had additional items of clothing to purchase or have made. Sarah, Ellie, Hattie, and Mei had to have new gowns made up in a hurry. But aside from this, driven by a mischievous impulse Sarah had purchased tall top hats to match all the men's outfits, so that they then had to make other adjustments to their wardrobes to suit them.

The thing was, both Tom and Andy stood as much above six feet as Chuck did, so in their top hats all four of the men would be standing over seven feet tall as they made their entrance, and on top of that, with their heels and hairdos, the ladies would all be over six feet as well. There wasn't a chance that Kathleen could miss that.

* * *

Sarah was, of course, correct. The entrance they made as four impossibly tall couples (even Mei was taller than the other women) attracted every eye in the place, and when John removed his top hat, Kathleen almost fainted as she recognised him.

It took her half an hour to manoeuvre her husband around the room until they could be introduced to John and Mei, but when she heard him introduced as Colonel John Casey, she started to turn away in disappointment until John said "You look wonderful Kathleen" quietly.

She knew that voice! It _was_ Johnny!

She turned back to look at him with a gaze so intense that her husband tried to drag her away as she was, in his words, 'Making an unseemly spectacle of herself', but she shook his hand off her arm as she addressed John.

"They told me that you were dead!"

John nodded and indicated a corner out of the way, asking. "Shall we talk?"

The rest of their party converged on the corner as they moved there, and then proceeded to scare away anyone moving towards them with less than welcoming looks.

John asked "Mister and Missus Waterman, may I introduce my companions?"

Kathleen nodded tersely.

"This is Colonel Charles Barton and his wife Mrs Sarah Barton, Major Thomas Paterson and his companion Miss Harriet Quinlan, Captain Andrew Dent and his companion Miss Eleanor Helsing, and you've met my companion, Miss Mei-Ling Kuang."

Kathleen impatiently greeted each person, then rounded on John. "OK Johnny, we've all met each other. Now I believe that it's time that you tell me why I was told that you were dead, where you've been for the last twelve years, and why you're going by this other name now!"

Mei squeezed his arm and John nodded, starting his story.

"Well, for a start, the Army believed that I was dead because when I was shot off my horse back in sixty near Pyramid Lake, my troop rode off and left me without checking to see whether I was alive or not. I hid out in the brush with a bullet in my shoulder while I waited for the Paiutes to finish stripping the bodies of the dead and leave, then I walked the fifty miles back to our camp, maybe more, the fever from the wound set in after a day and I think I may have walked around in circles for a while."

John waved down a passing server and snagged two glasses of champagne from the tray, passing the first to Mei before sipping from the other, he could have done with something stronger, but this was all he could get. The others all took glasses as well, and once the server had left, he took up the story again.

"By the time I managed to get back to our camp, they'd packed up and left, and after standing there cursing them for a while, I believe I passed out and collapsed. I don't rightly know how long I was there, but when I came to my senses again after the fever broke, I did the only thing I could, started walking to the nearest town to get help, Reno or Virginia City."

Mei exchanged his empty glass for the untouched one in her hand, and he gave her a grateful look.

"I'd been walking for about day when I came across a prospector's camp. The man was dead, snake bite it looked like, so I buried him then took his horse, pack mule and gear, and went back to Louisiana as him, John Casey, leaving Alex Coburn buried there." (Kathleen's husband started at that name) "I didn't know where my troop had gone, and I didn't believe that I owed them anything after they abandoned me and left me for dead the way they had without even looking to see if I was alive."

He paused and Mei exchanged glasses again, he looked down at the full glass in surprise before he realised that none of their group had touched their drinks, so Sarah had handed her glass to Mei, he nodded in thanks.

"After you were taken by the Indians, there was nothing left for me up there. You have to believe that I tried to look for you, but Colonel Merriweather rejected every request I made to be allowed to try and find you. As you know, he denied my request to escort you to the stage that was to take you back east to your aunt, sending me out on patrol that day, and every time I requested leave to take a party out to look for you, or at least some evidence that we could give to your family to tell them what had happened to you he denied the request. He just said that it was a waste of time because you'd be dead or worse before I could find you."

"I still spent the next year and more looking for some sign of you in every Indian camp we went into, but after a year of that I'd begun to give up hope, so when I was left for dead and had a chance to start over, I took it. About six months after I got back to Louisiana, the war broke out, and I joined up to fight."

Kathleen's husband broke in at that point with an indignant question. "May I ask which side you fought for in the war, Sir?"

John looked at him in disdain. "The South, of course! I'm a Louisianan, and I had no love for the United States Army at that point!"

With that, John dismissed him and went back to the story he was telling Kathleen, nodding thanks as Mei handed him another charged glass.

"I wasn't a conventional soldier, they used me and what I'd learned as an Indian fighter to make a difference in the war and I didn't have any connections to anyone, other than one young girl who had been dragged into that sorry mess who I tried to protect as best I could."

Neither Kathleen nor her husband noticed Sarah catch her breath at that, and turn her face into Chuck's chest to cry quietly, but the others did.

"A short time before the war ended though, something happened that made me surrender myself to the Union forces. I'd come up against a hero, the biggest hero I'd ever seen, but when I eventually killed him, or so I thought, another took up the mantle and carried on his fight. He managed to save the day for the Union, so I'd killed this magnificent hero for nothing. At that point I realised how futile what I was doing was, and shamed by what I'd done, I surrendered to the Union."

At that point, he broke the pain filled look that he'd been sharing with Chuck since he brought up the incident where he'd almost killed him.

"I expected to be shot on sight, and I almost was, but the one who'd taken up the reins when the hero fell insisted that I be taken back to City Point to answer for what I'd done. When I was taken before the General though, he recognised me from when he'd talked to my class at West Point, and gave me a chance to tell the story of how I'd gotten there. When I him told the story, he spared me, reinstated me as a Captain in the Union Army and put me to work for the Union."

When Mei exchanged glasses again, he held onto her hand, not realising it at first, but Mei and Kathleen certainly did.

"I worked for the General until the end of the war, and at the end of the war I was discharged from the United States Army as a Brevet Colonel. The General wasn't done with me though, and I became a United States Marshal, to be sent in to clean up the government's messes, and I did that for the next five years. Then, a little over a year ago, I was called upon to be part of something much bigger, and that was how I came to be here."

Silence reigned when he finished, broken only by Kathleen's husband's muttering something about damned rebs and liars, but they ignored him as they were waiting for Kathleen to tell John about his daughter. As her silence stretched out, they were getting ready to leave in disappointment when she spoke.

"Johnny, we have a daughter. I didn't know that I was pregnant when I was being sent back east, but when I was captured, the women of the tribe could tell, and they made me off limits to all the braves, as babies were sacred to them. When she was born, I named her after you, her name is Alexandra Joan Coburn, Alex."

"The tribe called her White Bird, but she has always been Alex to me. The protection of the taboo against interfering with a baby or its mother was still in force when traders came and bought me from the Indians, so I wasn't touched while I was with them. When I was rescued, I tried to find you to share with you that we had a daughter, but I was told you were dead. That was what I told her when she was old enough to ask."

She waved at her husband. "I married Alan a few years after I came to live with Aunt Martha, but Alex's name stayed as it was, in memory of my dead husband, her father."

Her eyes darted to Alan as she said that, but he was oblivious to most of what was going on around him.

John was clutching Mei's hand tightly, and eventually he asked. "Can I meet her?" and Kathleen glanced at Alan again, briefly and dismissively when he started to say something.

"Yes, of course! You are her father, and she deserves a chance to meet you, and I hope have you in her life."

The mixture of happy, grateful and relieved emotions in the look he gave her brought the first smile to her face since she'd recognised him. But that changed to concern when he said

"I have a confession to make Kathleen." When he went on though, the smile came back.

"Do you remember Corporal Tucker and Corporal Powell, those two Negro boys who were in the First Dragoons up there?"

Kathleen nodded with a smile, as they'd stood out, being the only Negroes in all the companies stationed up there.

"Well, we ran into them over in California a few weeks ago, and they remembered me as Captain Coburn" (she gave him a look at the rank, he just shrugged and said that he was promoted after she'd been taken) "they told me about you and the baby being recovered. We tried looking for you then, but there wasn't much we could do from the other side of the country. Then we were engaged for a diplomatic escort back here to New York…."

Mei reacted to the memories brought up by that of what had happened to her by squeezing his hand tightly, and he bent down to gently kiss her cheek to comfort her, much as Hattie had done to him, but the difference was his gesture to May was unconscious, and he didn't realise that he'd done it. Mei and Kathleen certainly did, though.

Kathleen nodded, obviously a little upset by that kiss, and said. "You should come to the house tomorrow afternoon for tea, you can meet Alex then."

With that she held out her hand to her husband, when he didn't react, she snapped "Alan, a card!", and as he was fumbling to get a card from his pocket she asked.

"Will you be coming by yourself, or will your companions be accompanying you?"

John looked at the others and their looks said that they would support him in any way he wished, so he replied. "We will all be coming if that's no bother?"

Kathleen shook her head as she handed over the card that Alan had finally retrieved from his pocket. "Not at all. We'll see you at three, tomorrow afternoon then."

She nodded gracefully at them, saying "Ladies, gentlemen, until tomorrow then?" They all bowed or curtsied to her, as appropriate, and she responded with a curtsey, before departing with her husband in her wake.

They also left and returned to Memphis House soon after that, in two steam carriages as they'd arrived. In their carriage, Ellie leaned forward with a smile and asked Hattie. "Do you think that John has realised that he kissed Mei yet?"

Hattie shook her head with a smile as she replied. "Not a chance, that's the man he is under the Bear, sweet, caring and considerate. I'd lay money that that was who he was on the surface before his ' _wife_ ' was taken by the Indians and he was left for dead by the army."

Ellie grinned. "So you noticed that, did you?"

Hattie snorted. "Please! The only one who didn't notice was her husband, wasn't it?" looking a question at Tom and Andy. They nodded, but Tom felt compelled to say something in Kathleen's defence.

"You need to understand what the harridans of society are like Hattie, as a young widow, bravely raising her daughter on her own, she would be accepted, and even supported, but as an unwed mother, they would have torn her apart."

Hattie squeezed his hand to placate him. "Oh Tom, I do understand, I was actually part of that society as a girl, I was only laughing at her husband. And before you ask, no, I don't hold it against Kathleen, getting married so soon after she went to live with her aunt. Nor, do I believe, does Johnny. As far as she knew he was dead, and she was trying to do what was best for her daughter, _their_ daughter. But she certainly didn't like seeing Johnny kiss Mei, though."

Ellie shook her head. "Not at all, but May didn't seem to mind in the least! I just hope that the two of them can get past their problems and make it work. I believe that they would be truly wonderful for each other."

Hattie nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, and when the time comes..." She shot an apologetic look at Tom and squeezed his arm "He is just the man to help her get past what was done to her. Johnny was a very tender and considerate lover, I can't think of any man who could be better for her after what she's been through."

Tom and Andy were looking exceedingly uncomfortable with the present discussion. Tom wasn't jealous of Hattie's (or rather Carina's) past with John, but this frank discussion about sex wasn't something that they were at all used to in mixed company.

Back at Memphis House, they all went straight to their rooms and to bed, as it had been a tiring day.

* * *

Early the next morning, Sarah and Hattie headed down to the Tolbert, Ives and Jager offices as Sam and Harry to work on the matters that had been building up while Sarah was away.

Later that day, they took the steam carriages to the Waterman residence for afternoon tea. After making the minimal effort to show the courtesy of greeting them, Alan Waterman disappeared, as he'd had enough of being ignored the night before and his fragile ego could handle no more. For her part, Alexandra couldn't understand why she was there, meeting this group of people with her mother, but she behaved as a young lady should.

They tried, and failed, with small talk for a while, then Kathleen put her cup down, turning to Alex.

"Alex, there's no easy way to say this, this" (waving at John) "is your father, Alexander John Coburn, but he goes by John Casey now."

Alex looked from her mother to the man she had just been told was her father, and back to her mother. "But you told me he was dead Mama!"

Kathleen nodded. "Yes my sweet, I told you that because that was what I was told. I only found out otherwise last night when I saw him at the function Alan and I went to. Your father told me what happened back then, and I believe that it would be best if he told you the story himself."

She looked at John. "Johnny, please remember that you're talking to a young lady, your thirteen year old daughter."

As she was saying this, she was trying to mask from Alex that she was pointing to her wedding rings, to remind him that they were supposed to have been married. John nodded to indicate that he'd received the message, and turned to look at Alex.

Looking at the two of them staring nervously at each other, Kathleen snorted, which turned the attention of both of them to her. She said "That should answer any questions you may have about who's daughter you are." as she pointed at their hands. They both looked down to see their fingers crossed over each other in their usual nervous gesture, then looked at the other to see them displaying an identical gesture. John chuckled and Alex giggled, and with the ice broken, John began the story, keeping Kathleen's admonitions in mind.

As it was only "family" there (with neither Alan nor any other eavesdroppers being present), John shared more details than he had the night before. Kathleen was shocked to find that Sarah was, in fact, the young girl that he'd been trying to protect in the war, that Chuck was the hero who he thought he'd killed, and that Tom was the one who took up Chuck's mantle when he fell. This all made the story much more immediate and real. Another surprise was that Miss Eleanor Helsing was in fact Colonel Barton's sister.

* * *

They had been talking for hours when they concluded the discussion, and as John knew that they would have to leave and resume their mission in California soon, he was explaining to the two of them that he could be contacted at any time via telegram or letter, all they needed to do was send them to, or drop them into, the Tolbert, Ives and Jager offices, any responses would be delivered to them.

As he was explaining how to communicate, John saw that Chuck and Sarah were having one of their silent conversations, which concluded with Sarah leaning forward to ask. "John, do you mind if I add something here?"

Having a good idea of what she was about to say, he responded with. "Not at all, please do."

She thanked him and turned to Kathleen and Alex.

"Missus Waterman, Miss Coburn, as you would be aware from the story that you have just heard, the life we lead can be a dangerous one that requires us to pay keen attention to what we are doing. I know that John would find it easier to pay proper attention to what he must do if he were not worrying about the two of you. He, my husband and I also have been in this business long enough to recognise the signs of potentially troublesome business dealings."

She looked at John before continuing and he nodded.

"I am certain that John would be a lot more comfortable, knowing that the two of you have a roof over your head and are being properly provided for. Therefore, I would like the two of you to come to the Tolbert, Ives and Jager offices tomorrow morning, so that we can put the arrangements in place to ensure that if you have a need for something, you have only to go to the law firm and you will be provided for."

Kathleen stared at her. "How could you know about that, the money problems?"

Sarah looked her straight in the eye and gave her a long stream of indicators that showed someone who was financially troubled, but desperate to put on a good show to fool creditors and investors.

While still looking her in the eye, she added. "This offer obviously does not extend to your husband or any of his business dealings, this is purely to protect you and your daughter."

Kathleen nodded quickly at that, she had married Alan Waterman in hope of providing a good home and a father for Alex, but before long it had become obvious that he'd primarily been after her fortune to cover up his losses and poor business dealings.

He'd used his rights as her husband to access the money that she'd inherited from her father, and since her Aunt had died and left that fortune to her, he had gone through just about all of that too. They mainly went to these functions now so that he could attempt to solicit investors to maintain the lifestyle to in turn convince others that he was successful, and therefore a good investment.

She had been supporting him, as that was the only way she could see to support Alex, but if John and his colleagues (or more to the point, friends) were offering to support them in this, then perhaps she could get out of this loveless marriage and raise Alex without that man's corrupting influence.

She looked at Sarah, saying. "We will be there tomorrow."

Sarah nodded, but it was obvious that Alex was a little confused about what was going on. She was a smart girl, and she'd known things weren't 'right' for a while, but everything was a little too much for her at the moment.

Sarah decided that a little levity may help, so she looked at Alex and Kathleen with a smile. "One more thing, ladies, when you come into the office tomorrow, you will probably find the two junior partners that you'll be dealing with, Harry Quinn and Samuel Walton, rather familiar, as they are very closely related to Hattie and I, but please don't say anything if anyone but us is in the room."

Kathleen looked at her wide eyed, waving a finger between her and Hattie. "Do you mean?"

Sarah nodded with a smile, with that they said their goodbyes and departed.


	2. Enter the Dragon

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

The morning after their visit to the Watermans', Sam and Harry were hard at work in the Partners' office of Tolbert, Ives and Jager, preparing for Kathleen and Alex's visit. John was in the office as well, discussing about what they were going to do, but Chuck was still upstairs in his workroom, exchanging telegrams with Scottie in Pittsburgh about some project they were working on.

Tom had created a monster when he introduced Chuck to his 'Uncle Scottie', because they were too much, even for other engineers! Sarah plugged in the telefono connection for Chuck's 'lair' and cranked the telefono to ring the bell (only the Partners' and Directors' offices had connections to the apartments upstairs).

When he answered, she just said. "Get down here now! Kathleen and Alex are due any time."

There was a pause, and then Chuck said "Is that the time? Sorry my love, I was engrossed with the project, I'll be right there!" and put down the handset.

Chuck came into the office ten minutes later (Mister Barton was in and out of the Partners' office all the time whenever Mister Walton was there, to the point where no-one questioned him just walking in, though many of the staff did wonder about the two of them), but they knew something was wrong from his expression when he did.

He hooked his thumb back at the main office and said. "Waterman is with them!"

The waiting room for the law firm was off to the side in the front office, so unless people in there happen to be looking out the door, they wouldn't see people coming in and out of the office, Chuck had glanced in to see whether they were there yet as he passed and saw Waterman. He'd nodded and waved to the clerk on the front desk just in time to stop him saying his name and perhaps giving him away.

Sarah swore, and quickly moved the telefono connection to the one for Jim Goodman's office, cranking the telefono. Jim was the first lawyer Sarah, or rather Sam, had hired, as he'd not only been a good friend at Columbia, he also had far more honesty and integrity than most in the legal profession.

When Jim answered, she explained. "Jim, it's Sam, we have a situation. The young lady out in the waiting room is Alexandra Coburn, the daughter of our client Mister Casey. The lady with her is Kathleen Waterman, her mother and his ex-wife. The man with them is Alan Waterman, her new husband, and he is _NOT_ supposed to be here. He has squandered most of his wife's inheritance and he's obviously come here to try and use some ruse to get access to the money that he believes Mister Casey will be making available for his daughter's safekeeping and upbringing."

"Our responsibility here is to ensure that that doesn't happen. Harry and myself are both known to Mister Waterman, and for reasons that I don't have time to go into now he can't know that we're representing Mister Casey, and therefore Miss Coburn and Missus Waterman as her guardian. Therefore, we need you to take him aside and keep him occupied while we make the arrangements for our clients."

Jim responded. "That shouldn't be a problem Sam, I can take him into my office and keep him busy with depositions and authorities for a few hours if I have to, do you want me to do that now?"

"Yes please Jim. Please be careful though, Waterman's apparently been in this game for some time, and he may be bright enough to spot obvious delaying tactics."

"OK, it shouldn't take more than five minutes to get him into my office."

"Thank you Jim." She hung up the handset and sat back with a sigh.

Hattie went to embrace John. "Don't worry Johnny, we'll sort this out."

Sarah went to Chuck, sitting in his lap and kissing him as she needed comforting, to which he scrunched up his face, saying. "Don't take this the wrong way my love, but I prefer you without facial hair."

Hattie snorted. "I'd say that that's suitable payback for her having to kiss your scruffy face all the time Chuckie!"

Sarah smirked at her. "Hey, I like his beard!"

John cleared his throat and they put their laughter aside. Sarah stayed where she was in Chuck's lap as she started talking though. "Obviously Waterman's here to try and get control of whatever money Uncle John makes available for Alex, though I doubt that he realises that we'll be looking out for Kathleen as well. Chuck, what are the precedents?"

Chuck rattled off a long stream of precedents on fathers, step-fathers and guardians controlling a minor's assets, then added. "We do have an advantage here though. The fact that Kathleen kept Alex's name as Coburn when she married Waterman shows a clear separation between Alex and Waterman. We'll have to ask Kathleen, but I doubt that she would have signed any legal agreement making Waterman Alex's guardian. For that matter, we aren't setting up a fund or trust for Alex, we'll just be paying any bills that need paying. Kathleen herself is more problematical, being his wife, but I saw a strong indications last night that one of the first things she'll be asking Tolbert, Ives and Jager for is assistance with a divorce."

Sarah nodded. "Yes, I saw that as well, hope that she may be able to get help to get Alex and herself away from Waterman, we can talk to her about that."

Hattie was looking at them with an amused expression. "You two are amazing and I doubt that I'll ever get used to Chuckie having, well just about everything, in his head, but quite aside from us being friends, I'm damned glad that we're all on the same side!"

Sophie grinned at that and waved the others to their seats as she headed back to her desk, where she plugged in the front desk connection and cranked the telefono to ask the law clerk there to escort Mrs Waterman and her daughter in.

When Kathleen and Alex were escorted into the office Kathleen hesitated, but heeding Sarah's words of the night before, waited until the door had shut behind the law clerk before she said. "I had believed you to be jesting last night Missus Barton, but it is now apparent that you were not?"

Sarah shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. No _decent_ law school will accept female students yet, so both Hattie and I had to masquerade as men to study law and be admitted to the bar."

Kathleen turned to ask Chuck. "I take it, Colonel Barton, that you take no issue with your wife pretending to be a man?"

Chuck shared a loving look with Sarah before he turned to Kathleen. "Chuck, please, and no. If Sarah has to masquerade as a man to triumph over some old fools' restrictions and achieve what she wants, I will support her in any way I can!"

Alex was looking from one to the other and beaming, she found the idea of women doing whatever they had to to achieve what they wanted exhilarating, and furthermore, she was heartened by the fact that her father appeared to support this as well, as he was looking proudly at Mrs Barton.

Kathleen smiled at Alex's reaction, as her daughter could do a lot worse than adopting these people as her role models.

She turned back to Chuck. "You are an extraordinary man Col… Chuck, I only wish more men could be like you. And Johnny, I am glad to see that you still defy the social mores and support women's rights to do as they wish."

Looking at how Chuck and Sarah were together, even with her playing a man, brought a pang of regret to Kathleen, that she had never had anything like this. The time that she and Johnny were together was the closest that she'd ever come, but being in an army camp in the middle of an Indian war and having her father there had limited how they could interact with each other most of the time.

She and Johnny had never had this openness that she'd seen every time that she'd been around these two, though her fury at their first meeting had made her miss much of what was in front of her.

* * *

Sarah waved the two women to seats in front of her desk, asking. "Would I be right in presuming that you did not invite your husband to accompany you this morning Missus Waterman?"

A frown crossed over Kathleen's face. "Kathleen please, and no. When Alan found that we were coming to the law firm to discuss what Johnny wanted to put in place for Alex, he insisted on coming along, to manage what was set up as her stepfather. I beg you not to allow that to happen!"

"Don't worry Kathleen, that will not happen. I have one of our other lawyers keeping your husband occupied so that we can make our arrangements without his interference. We do need to ask you a few things though I'm afraid, about Mister Waterman's legal status in regard to Alex, and about what your plans are for your future so that we can ensure that he has no access to whatever we set up for you."

Kathleen nodded hesitantly, but stopped and pointed to the odd devices on the desks about the office, asking. "Sorry, but what are those?"

Sarah smiled and waved to Chuck to answer, as he'd found those that he hadn't created himself.

Chuck smiled and started his explanation, first pointing to the device on Sarah's desk "That's a telefono, it allows people to talk over telegraph wires, we use them to save time when we need to talk to people within the building, and outside the building too for that matter. The board beside it is used to make the connections to other telefonos, the light bulbs let us know which connection to plug in when it rings"

He then indicated the device on the desk in front of him. "This is a Takygraf, I'll be using it to note down exactly what's said here, in case we need to check any of the details later. That" (pointing to a device on the third desk) "is a Hansen Writing Ball, we'll use that to print the documents we create for the agreements we're making up here. Then we'll use the Writing Ball and Takygraf's creator's Xerografi process to make as many copies as we need with the paper press next to it. Did that answer your question, or did I only confuse you more?"

Kathleen smiled and said. "No, you've answered my question Chuck, I don't believe I understood much of what you said, but I have an idea of what they're for, thank you."

With that, Sarah went on. "You said that Alex's name remained as Alexandra Joan Coburn when you married.." (adding "again" quickly as she darted a look in Alex's direction) "have you and Mister Waterman ever made any legal arrangements in regard to him being Alex's guardian?"

Kathleen shook her head. "No, other than being her stepfather, Alan has no legal relationship with Alex and I have not signed anything giving him any rights over her."

Sarah nodded, relieved. "Good, that means that he cannot get control of any assets that may be assigned to her, though you may be required to testify to that in court if he produces documents that he claims that you have signed to give him guardianship."

Kathleen nodded determinedly "I will do what I have to disprove any false documents that he may produce."

That got another nod from Sarah, but she looked uncomfortable about what she needed to ask next.

"I apologise in advance for what I must ask next Kathleen, but we do need to clarify this. Last night, when we were discussing what we wanted to set up for you and Alex, Chuck and I had the impression that you may be hoping for assistance to find a way for you and Alex to get away from Mister Waterman, were we correct?"

She glanced at Alex. "I am sorry, would you rather not have this discussion with Alex in the room?"

Kathleen shook her head. "No, she should hear this, as it effects her. And yes, I was hoping that you" (waving her hand around the room) "may see your way clear to assisting me in getting a divorce from Alan, and making arrangements that ensure that he can never get his hands on our money again."

"Since we have been married, he has squandered my inheritance from both my father and my aunt, as well as Alex's prospects, on maintaining the lifestyle that he wishes to lead. He has also induced me, in hope of protecting Alex's future, to assist him in his schemes to acquire funds to perpetuate this lifestyle. I do not know how I can replace what he has squandered to provide for Alex and her future, but I would like to ensure that there is no possibility that he can access anything we have once we are separated from him."

Sarah nodded. "We can assist you in that, all of it. We do not have anyone with experience in divorce matters in our firm, but we do have associations with a number of other law firms, and I am certain that at least one of them will have people with the experience required. We will make enquiries with them in regard to that at the earliest opportunity. We will also be performing searches to determine what dealings he has used your name on, so that we can start proceedings to have your name removed from them. Have you willingly or knowingly put your name to any of his business dealings?"

Kathleen shook her head. "No, but I did sign paperwork to allow the use of my aunt's house as security for some enterprises."

Sarah looked at her thoughtfully. "Do you have any personal attachment to that house?"

"No particular attachment, no, but why would you ask that?"

"Because it could well be in your interests to allow the house to be used to dissolve any debts that your name is attached to. With that, once you are divorced, there would be nothing that can be used to tie you to him, though you may wish to change your name" (darting a look in Alex's direction again) "back to Coburn, to sever any association in people's minds between you and Waterman."

Kathleen nodded again. "I believe that this is good advice, but where are we to live if we lose the house?"

"We will arrange for a place for the two of you, it will be more modest than the current one I'm afraid, but still suitable for the social standing that comes with your family's name. You would have to let go most of your current staff, as your new lifestyle probably wouldn't support more than two or three at most. Pardon my presumption, but I do not see a girl who was raised in Army camps around the country finding that too much of a hardship?"

For the first time since they'd begun talking about this, Kathleen smiled as she shook her head. "No, in fact I think it would be good for us."

She smoothed Alex's hair with a smile. "After all, White Bird here was born in a tepee on the Northern Plains, so I don't believe that a smaller house would bother her."

Alex beamed at her mother. "No Mama, in fact White Bird looks forward to it."

Kathleen looked up to see John smiling at his daughter with a suspicious sparkle in his eye, as if the light were reflecting off a tear, and smiled to herself.

Sarah smiled and said. "Well then, we need to get the core paperwork started and to put you in contact with our people who will be progressing this for you. Please believe that we _ALL_ wish that we could stay to help you through this, but we must get back to California and the work we left there to escort an important personage to New York. We have been getting messages from the one we report to ever since we completed that escort, asking why we haven't returned to California yet."

"There is another thing that we must discuss first though. It would almost certainly be better, and safer, for Alex to be away at a boarding school while all this is going on. If she were safely hidden elsewhere, it would prevent any attempts by Mister Waterman to use her to try and force your hand in any altercations that may be going on. Do you have any thoughts on the matter, either of you?"

Kathleen and Alex looked at each other, and Kathleen responded. "I do not wish to be separated from my daughter, but I must admit that I would feel better knowing that she'd be safe..."

She looked at Alex as she waited for a response, and when Alex nodded, saying "Yes mama", turned back to Sarah, saying. "It appears that we have an agreement, do you have any suggestions as to a school?"

Sarah looked at John, and he indicated that he was open to suggestions as well, so she turned back to Kathleen. "There is one school up in Connecticut that my, well I believe that you would call them my guardians, are planning to send their daughter to. It has a very good reputation for giving girls a solid education, Miss Porter's School."

Kathleen's eyes went wide. "I have certainly heard of Miss Porter's School, and it does indeed have the reputation that you say, but we could never get Alex into there. Quite aside from the cost involved, they are so exclusive that only the daughters of the best families in America can get into there."

Sarah smiled at her. "Don't worry about that, money isn't a problem, and we know people who I believe may have the influence to get Alex in there straight away, if you and Alex are in agreement for her to go there?"

John snorted at the comment about knowing people with influence, but waved it off when Kathleen looked at him. She gave him a hard look before turning to Alex who nodded, intrigued and excited by the idea, so Kathleen turned back to Sarah and just said. "Yes please. If we can get her in, that would be wonderful."

Sarah nodded and ducked out of the office to send a telegram to Uncle Sam to ask that he see whether he could get John Casey's daughter, thirteen year old Alexandra Joan Coburn, into Miss Porter's School immediately, before returning to work on compiling the legal documents with Hattie and Chuck.

John talked to Kathleen and Alex while Sarah, Hattie and Chuck worked together to write up the documents to put the necessary arrangements in place.

Kathleen looked over at the three working together, and asked the question that had arisen earlier in her mind. "Why isn't Chuck part of this law firm Johnny? He's obviously as much a lawyer as the ladies are?"

John looked over at Chuck as he said. "Things happened that prevented him getting his law degree, but he doesn't mind, he's happy enough assisting Sarah and Hattie, or rather Sam and Harry, with these things. He did finish his Engineering degree though, and his sister Ellie has her degree in medicine as well. That's part of the reason that I'd like Alex to be in the position to have the choice to go on to earn a degree if that's what she wishes, having seen what these ladies have made of themselves."

He felt an impact against his chest then, and when he looked down, Alex had her face buried in his chest and her arms around his waist. He hesitated for a moment and then put his arms around her, enjoying his first hug with his daughter.

Kathleen looked on with a smile, one that was matched by Sarah when she looked up to see it, nudging Chuck and Hattie so they could share this sight. Kathleen met Sarah's gaze and shared a happy smile with her, shaking her head as she thought about what amazing people Johnny had surrounded himself with. That wasn't so surprising though, considering how amazing Johnny was himself.

John looked up with a curious expression, with his arms still around Alex. "Kath, what was your Indian name? You've told me Alex's, but you never mentioned what they called you?"

Kathleen looked uncomfortable and tried to tell him that she didn't remember, but Alex turned around so that she was facing her, still with an arm around her father (just as he'd kept an arm around her), and said with a very similar quizzical expression to her father.

"Mama? I know that you haven't forgotten, why don't you want to tell us? Was it rude, or insulting? I think they gave me a pretty name, did they not do the same for you?"

Kathleen tried to evade for a little while, then she gave in and told them, and the other three were suddenly interrupted by peals of laughter, John's guffaws and Alex's more melodious tinkling laugh.

Hattie looked at the two of them and said. "You cannot do this without sharing, what is so funny?"

Alex looked at Kathleen hesitantly, and she waved to say 'go ahead', so she looked at Hattie and said "Mama just told us her Indian name."

Hattie waited for more, and when it didn't come she asked. "And?"

Alex glanced at her mother before saying. "It was Storm Cloud."

Hattie turned a quizzical look on Kathleen, who sighed resignedly and said. "They told me that when I was first with them, my face always looked as though storm clouds were coming, as they said that I was always angry."

There was silence at the table at first, then they started giggling or sniggering as well.

Once they'd managed to get control of themselves again, they finished the documents and went through them with Kathleen, Alex and John to explain what was laid out in them. Then they brought in the lawyers who would be working on their affairs (except for Jim Goodman, who was still keeping Alan Waterman occupied), to meet them and sign the agreements with them (with Chuck, Sarah/Sam and Hattie/Harry).

While they were doing this, one of the clerks brought in a telegram from Uncle Sam to say that Alex had been accepted into Miss Porter's School, and she could start tomorrow if they wished. Kathleen stared at Sarah when she heard that, asking. "Who could you know who could do this?"

Sarah just smiled and said. "My Uncle Sam knows quite a few people."

John snorted again, but tried to school his expression when Kathleen looked at him.

Kathleen and Alex were standing in the entrance area with John when Jim came back with Alan Waterman, and Waterman testily said. "This has taken quite long enough, where's the paperwork for the money for Alexandra?"

John just looked at him and said. "There is no paperwork, arrangements have been made for Alexandra to go to a good school."

Waterman tried to puff out his chest, saying. "I control the money for this family, and I demand to see the paperwork on whatever fund is being set up for Alexandra!"

John closed on him and he stumbled back until he came up against the wall. When he could retreat no further, John got right in his face.

"As you're obviously hard of hearing, I'll speak a little closer. There is no paperwork, there is no fund! I am paying for my daughter to go to a good school and, along with her mother, I will be taking her up there tomorrow to get her enrolled. Now, did you hear me this time?"

Waterman glared at him, silent, and John got even closer, growling. "I asked you a question!"

Waterman glared at him again, but spat out. "Yes!"

John looked him in the eye. "If you try to interfere with us taking our daughter off to school tomorrow, or interfere with my daughter in _ANY_ way, there won't be enough pieces left of you for anyone to find, do you understand?"

Waterman's bravado had quickly evaporated when faced with fear of imminent death and he just whispered. "Yes."

John shot a look at Kathleen before turning his gaze back on Waterman. "For that matter, Kathleen may not be my wife any more, but she _is_ the mother of my child, so if she's harmed in any way, you'll answer to me!"

Waterman nodded, almost fouling himself.

Sarah had snuck out of the Partners' office during this and, standing behind Alex and Kathleen out of Waterman's line of sight, she whispered in Alex's ear.

"No-one harms anyone your daddy cares about White Bird, remember that."

Alex turned to flash a smile at her, she was liking this extended family that came with her father quite a lot!

Sarah smiled as she squeezed her arm and then ducked back to the office.

Chuck gave Kathleen a nudge and motioned to the door as John had Waterman's complete attention while he continued to berate him, so she took Alex's hand and followed him out the door. The steam carriage that was waiting outside took them straight home.

As soon as they arrived at the house, Kathleen called for the servants to pack Alex's trunks, as they would need to be ready to depart quite early in the morning.

* * *

When Waterman arrived home, he barged angrily into Alex's room and demanded that Kathleen tell him where Alex was going. Kathleen just kept repeating that she didn't rightly recall the name of the school, she just knew that it was an exclusive girl's school up north that John's family had ties to, and that was how he'd managed to get Alexandra accepted in the middle of the year as he did.

Kathleen's off-hand response that she'd know about the school after they took Alex there tomorrow frustrated Waterman, and he grabbed her arm roughly, only to let it go as quickly as if it were a venomous snake when he heard Alex say.

"Have you forgotten what my father told you already? He won't be at all pleased to hear of that tomorrow."

Waterman rushed out of Alex's room in a panic at that, and Kathleen tried to look stern as she said "That is no way for you to talk to a grown up young lady!", but she gave up and stepped in to embrace her, kissing her on the forehead and whispering. "My clever girl!"

Kathleen slept with Alex that night, with the bedroom door locked. Waterman started banging on the door, demanding that they open it, but stopped as he remembered Alex's words. With that in mind he went to sleep in one of the guest bedrooms instead.

In the morning, Kathleen and Alex were up and gone before Waterman woke, and the group had ensured that they'd put on enough of a spectacle with their train of two steam carriages and an omnibus to guarantee that the neighbours and plenty of other people knew that there were two Colonels, a Major, a Captain and five fine ladies (one of whom was married to one of the Colonels, another who was his sister, and a third who was a lady of good family in New York and a close friend of the Colonel's wife, they did not know what to think of the Chinese lady and the Creole beauty who were with them, but they were both dressed and carried themselves as ladies of breeding) in the party who had arrived to escort Alexandra up to her new school with Kathleen.

Kathleen had run an experienced eye over the fourteen military men who were escorting their party, and easily recognised that these men were no ordinary troopers, they were definitely a cut above. That in turn told her something else about Johnny and his friends, they were _important_.

If that wasn't enough, they rode in a private Pullman car up to Farmington, and from the way even the escort behaved, this was normal for them. Johnny was in powerful company nowadays.

* * *

There were tears aplenty as Kathleen was separated from Alex at Miss Porter's, so Sarah gave her something else to think about as their carriage was leaving the school. She leaned forward to speak quietly to her.

"I realise that it's too early as yet to know whether Alex will like Miss Porter's or not Kathleen, but if she does like it, and you're not too attached to the social set in New York, perhaps we could look around here for a house that would suit the two of you? That would allow Alex to go to Miss Porter's, but live at home with you."

The bright smile that Kathleen gave her at that made it clear that she was quite agreeable to that notion, so Sarah spoke up. "Uncle John."

He looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "Might we have a look at what properties are available in Farmington at the moment for Kathleen and Alex?"

John gave her a look of surprise before turning to look at Kathleen with a raised eyebrow, and when she nodded eagerly with a smile he said "Of course" and turned to ask the driver who they'd need to talk to to find out what houses were for sale locally.

Not knowing how long it would take them to get to Connecticut, nor how long it would take to get Alex established at the school, they had all taken the precaution of bringing what was needed for an overnight stay along with them, so that they would be able to stay over if necessary. This precaution made the process of looking at houses much simpler, as they were able to inspect half of the available properties that afternoon, and the other half the following morning.

To forestall any suggestions of impropriety on Kathleen's part, she shared a room with Ellie at the hotel that night, and they made sure that the hotel management were quite aware of that fact, while John and some of the others stayed in another hotel.

They located a few quite nice prospects in the town, the most interesting of which being a nice house that was quite close to Miss Porter's, in the same street actually. Sarah and Hattie had changed into their Sam and Harry identities to have preliminary discussions with the law firms representing the sellers of the best prospects, and in particular the one near the school, so that it would be a simple matter to proceed if Kathleen decided that this was what she wanted.

They returned to New York after they'd looked at the available houses (and checking in at the school again to make sure that Alex was all right), and Chuck, Sarah, John, Mei, Ellie, Hattie, Tom and Andy all went back to the Waterman residence with Kathleen for dinner that night. The ladies led the spirited discussion on how lovely the school was, but John soon tired of Waterman's repeated queries about what school Alex had gone to, and where it was.

With his temper beginning to flare, John turned to Waterman and bluntly asked. "Why are you so interested in where my daughter is?"

Waterman stammered. "I, I just thought that it would be nice for us to go up and see her."

Waterman was sweating as John's eyes bored through him, and John let the uncomfortable silence go on much longer than was necessary before responding. "That will not be allowed, the school will only allow visitors who have been pre-arranged and accepted by the school. For Alex, that has been restricted to her mother and myself only. Furthermore, I have made arrangements with the school to be notified if anyone other than Kathleen or myself attempts to contact Alex, and I will be going after whoever tried to interfere with my daughter. I do _not_ want to hear that you have been asking about where Alex is again, do you understand?"

The threat was very clear, and Waterman hastily agreed as he decided to forget about the plans he had had to try to use Alex to get access to the money that her father obviously had. He needed money, to be sure, but it was quite clear that there was a very real risk of serious injury to himself, if not more, if this John Casey decided that he'd been interfering with his daughter in any way. Or if Kathleen said that he'd hurt her for that matter, he was still afraid of what might happen to him if Kathleen or Alex brought up anything about his actions when he'd returned from the law office.

* * *

Waterman was making himself ill, worrying about having to constantly look over his shoulder for John Casey, but unbeknownst to him, they'd already contacted the railroad companies and the Pullman Palace Car Company to organise for "their" Pullman car to be attached to the trains that would take them west again. Quite aside from the fact that they had to get back to their assignment in California, another complication had arisen to hasten their departure from New York.

With all the worry about Li, Kathleen and Alex, they had clean forgotten about Hattie's situation, including Hattie herself. As a result, Hattie had waltzed back into the New York social set where she'd grown up, using her own name and her natural look. This of course had resulted in her being recognised and gossiped about, which in turn meant that her family (or rather her father) was now searching for her.

Before they left New York, though, Hattie did find an opportunity to visit with her mother while her father was at his offices. There were tears aplenty, to be sure, but they couldn't dampen her mother's happiness at being able to see her daughter in good spirits and health for the first time in nearly ten years.

Given that this would be most likely her only opportunity to do so without her father being present, Hattie also took this opportunity to introduce Tom to her mother, in case she and Tom decided to take this thing between them further.

They stopped in Washington, unhitching 'their' Pullman car from the train, so that they could introduce the newest member of their team to the one that they reported to.

It was quite a shock for Mei when she met Uncle Sam, because she'd been told that they worked for a senior official, _not_ that they were working directly for the President of the United States of America himself!

Uncle Sam had learned with Ellie not to doubt these people's recommendations, so when Sarah, Charles, John and Harriet all recommended adding Mei-Ling to the team as a Secret Service Agent like the others, he approved it without question.

They advised Uncle Sam of the code names that they would be using for the new people associated with their group in any communications while they were there. They were already using Bear for John, Black Widow for Sarah, Elder for Chuck, Doc for Ellie and Blaze for Hattie, along with the ones for Tom, Andy and each of the senior Sergeants. Now, they added Dragon for Mei, Belle for Jane, Lotus for Anna (as they could see possibilities in her) and, in case news came via Uncle Sam about Kathleen and Alex, Storm Cloud and White Bird respectively for them.

Uncle Sam raised his eyebrow at Sarah on these last and she quirked a smile at him, just saying "Their Indian names."

When they'd gotten the business out of the way, Sarah asked if she could have a private word with Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam and Chuck knew what this would be about, but the others didn't. As the others headed out, Chuck went to kiss her and go, reminding her that Uncle Sam may well have had a good reason to keep that information from them, but she grabbed his arm and asked him to stay.

He looked her in the eyes and nodded, then they turned to face Uncle Sam.

The discussion didn't start on a good note, as she spat out. "You ignored my question about why you kept who Uncle John was from us!"

Uncle Sam just looked her in the eye and calmly said. "Because it wasn't a question, it was a diatribe, and quite a rude one at that!"

She bristled at that and was about to respond, but Chuck took her hand to calm her and addressed him. "Uncle Sam, may I ask why you didn't share this information about our partner with us?"

This question was what was needed to calm things down a little, and Uncle Sam sighed as he answered.

"Mainly because it wasn't my secret to tell son, it was John's. You've all had good reason to use different names over time, and being Alex Coburn or John Casey doesn't change the man that he is, but having to hear the name Alex Coburn would have reminded him that he'd once had a fiancé who he lost to the Indians, as well as the fact that he'd been left for dead by the men he'd fought side by side with for years. I didn't believe that there was good reason for him to be forced to live with those memories when it didn't change who he was. I believed that he deserved the chance to try and get on with his life."

When Chuck looked down at Sarah she was looking down, nodding mutely, so he pulled her face up to look in her eyes. "You have your answer. Can we let this go now?"

She nodded again and he gave her a gentle kiss on the lips before turning to Uncle Sam. "Thank you Sir."

Uncle Sam nodded and asked Sarah. "Do you forgive me now little one?"

Sarah nodded again, almost in tears. "Yes Uncle Sam, I'm sorry."

He stood and came around the desk to embrace her. "Shush, it's all right, but I hate it when you're vexed with me."

After that he stepped up to Chuck and shook his hand, clasping his shoulder. "I'm so glad she found you son, she needs you!"

Chuck looked into Sarah's eyes as he answered. "Not half as much as I need her!"

* * *

While they were in New York, they'd sent a telegram to Mr Landis to commission the creation of another two of 'their' side saddles to Mei and Anna's measurements. They sent the money via a wire transfer, so they had only to pick them up on the way though Kansas City.

The railroad trip back to San Francisco was almost as quiet as the trip east had been. Their main work was going through the new information packets that they'd collected from Uncle Sam, but there wasn't anything in there significant enough to make them change their plans.

Being told Chuck's secret along the way was a shock for Mei, but she came from an ancient culture that hadn't forgotten these things, so it was easier for her to accept than it had been for many of the others.

Chuck also raised the matter of his promise to her with Mei before they reached San Francisco, asking whether she wanted to go after the Tong while they were there, but she shook her head.

"No, our work down south is a higher priority Chuck, and we must get back to that. Perhaps if we have the opportunity once we have completed our duty to the… to Uncle Sam, we can go after the Tong then."

She started to turn away, but stopped and turned back to him. "Thank you Chuck, for helping me deal with what was done to me, this means a great deal to me."

He smiled and embraced her, saying. "You mean a great deal to us Mei, do not forget that."

* * *

While they were in San Francisco, they send a couple of troopers to the bedroll manufacturer to pick up another two bedrolls for Mei and Anna (and two more double bedrolls for their developing couples).

It didn't take them long to find a ship with the capacity to take their smaller group (with no mules), so they were quickly booked onto a fast steamer that was leaving in four to five hours. They sent a telegram off to their people in Los Angeles advising the ship's name and when they'd be arriving then went straight onto the ship (because Mei couldn't be seen in San Francisco).

Their passage to Los Angeles was pleasant, and they arrived on time.

Ben was waiting for them with a couple of troopers when they came off the steamer. Ben's primary purpose there was to hurry them along, because the Jane had arranged for seats on the train for them, along with space in the baggage car for their luggage, and the train was due to leave soon.

With that news, they grabbed a couple of handcarts, piled their trunks and bags onto them and set off at a brisk pace for the train.

The train trip into Los Angeles was relatively short and uneventful, and when they arrived they were met by a trooper with one of their wagons. It was little more that five minutes' work to load all their trunks and bags into the wagon, and the troopers took the wagon back to the stable.

The rest of them strolled off to the Two Widows.

Jane came to join them and hear how their trip was when they arrived. She was happy to hear that Li was safely in his boarding school and doing well, but she was more interested in hearing about Kathleen and Alexandra, once she got over the shock of hearing that they'd found them and John had been reunited with them.

When John's attention was elsewhere, Jane pointed surreptitiously at him and Mei and whispered. "How long has this been going on?"

Sarah smiled, responding just as quietly. "On and off since the function where we met Kathleen and her husband."

"John asked Mei if she would go with him, as he needed the support. He ended up holding her hand through half of the story he told Kathleen about what happened to him, and when he inadvertently mentioned something that brought up the memories of what happened to her, he gave her a kiss on the cheek to comfort her. I don't believe that he's realised that he did that, but Kathleen and Mei certainly did. Kathleen wasn't happy, but Mei didn't seem to mind at all."

Sarah told Jane a bit more of the story about how they were working to get Kathleen and Alex away from Kathleen's leach of a husband who had bled her dry and was getting her to help him in low level cons to maintain the lifestyle he wanted.

When she mentioned that they'd gotten Alex into Miss Porter's though, Jane's reaction was similar to what Kathleen's had been, because she also knew how hard it was to get a girl into there. Sarah explained it away by saying that the people they worked for managed to secure a place for Alex.

To change the subject, Chuck asked how the girls were doing, and Jane smiled. "The people looking after half of them have gotten so attached to them that they don't want them to leave when we take over the rancho. The biggest problem has been people having trouble with their names, so most of them are called by an English name that's close to their's now."

Sarah nodded at that, "That's quite similar to how Mei-Ling started being called May actually. Otis, the porter we usually get on the Pullman cars, was having trouble saying Mei-Ling, so she told him just to call her Mei, and it was 'Miss May' from then on."

Jane raised an eyebrow "Pullman cars? You _do_ travel in style, don't you?"

Sarah kicked herself for letting that slip. "When we're travelling across the country, it makes sense to have sleeping quarters so we're in good enough shape to go to work when we arrive. We're often discussing sensitive things that we can't afford to let others hear, so our bosses decided it was worth getting private Pullman cars for when we do those trips."

Once again, Chuck jumped in to change the subject, asking how the purchase of the rancho was going?

Jane nodded "The sale's gone through, and the people who were renting it are about a third moved out now. They weren't doing anything at first, I think they were actually planning on refusing to leave, but your boys went out there and asked why they hadn't left yet."

She gave a grim smile. "You know how intimidating your boys can be if they want to be, so when they turned up and said that their bosses told them to have the place ready by the time they got back and they weren't going to take the risk of their bosses being unhappy with them, the people there started moving quick smart. They've done about a third of what they were supposed to do in the previous two weeks in two days, so it'll probably take them at least four or five more days to get it done."

"These aren't local people, good people?"

"God no, they're arrogant bastards who expect people to all but work for them for free and refuse to pay their bills most of the time!"

Chuck smiled. "Well why don't we do something about them, then?"

He turned to face John and Tom.

"John, we've got a visit to make tomorrow, to get those people off our ranch!"

"Tom, can you have all the biggest and meanest looking of the boys come with us please?"

John and Tom nodded with grim smiles.

To get the attention off them, Sarah asked Jane why Morgan was sulking in a corner, and she scowled. "You know how Chuck asked for Anna to keep an eye on the girls, and said that Ben would organise an escort for her?" Sarah nodded.

"Well we agreed that it would be best not to attract too much attention to what she was doing, so we've just had her riding around the farms on the back of young Isaiah's horse like they're a couple. It looks like they're going that way actually, and that's done wonders for Anna. Isaiah is such a nice boy, I was worried that he wouldn't be enough to protect her until Ben and the others told me a few stories about what he's done with the team."

"Anyway, Morgan decided to tell Anna off for running around with Isaiah behind his back and when she told him to leave her alone he actually raised his hand at her. Now Anna could have handled him easily but Isaiah saw red and wupped him good when he saw that. Bolonia heard the whole thing and laid into him with a ladle too, well everyone heard it and the girls just call him 'cucaracha' now. Mike told him to stay away from the store as well."

"I'm surprised that he hasn't left, but he'd have to work to eat then, so he just sits there all day sulking the corner so he can eat for free when he wants. I'd like to throw him out, but I can't do that to Bolonia. At least he doesn't bother any of the girls any more, because he's too afraid to."

Chuck and Sarah cast disgusted looks at the pathetic figure in the corner, then said their goodbyes to everyone at the Two Widows and headed over to the Lafayette. Normally they would have checked on Diablo and Bruja first, but it had been a long day and they knew that their people would have looked after them (if they'd managed to beat Jeff to the job).

As Chuck and Sarah climbed into bed and snuggled up, Sarah commented on the thing that was on both of their minds. "It's silly, but it almost feels like coming home, coming back here."

Chuck smiled, "Yeah, it does."

* * *

Back on the east coast, Kathleen was getting telegrams every two or three days via Tolbert, Ives and Jager from Miss Porter's (without any mention of the school name or location, of course), telling her how Alex was doing. After a couple of weeks, she requested that the law firm make arrangements for her and another lady to go up to the school to see Alex.

Her husband knew nothing of this as she'd taken to sleeping in Alex's room and having little to do with him since she'd returned from the trip to get Alex settled into the school. As he still caroused at night and slept late into the morning, she and Lou (Louisa Palone, their cook, who was like a second mother to Alex) were on the train heading north before he woke.

Lou had gained the position of the cook in Kathleen's aunt's household at quite a young age because of her great talent, she was actually younger than Kathleen was. People who hadn't seen her at work could not believe that a someone of her youth and diminutive size could manage the kitchens of a large estate such as what was now the Waterman household, but in her domain she was like a force of nature and everyone bent to her will. That was how she was already her aunt's cook when Kathleen and Alex were bought back from the Indians and taken to New York.

When they first got to New York, the infant Alex was frightened of everything, because nothing was like what she'd known up until then. One of the biggest problems though was that she'd rejected her mother's milk because the taste had changed, and she wouldn't eat anything else she was given either.

After a while of Lou sending things up and waiting for them to be sent back, she'd suggested that they may be able to get the babe eating sooner if they brought her down to the kitchen, as they could eliminate the things she wouldn't eat that much faster. Kathleen's Aunt Martha had been scandalised by the idea (as she was a very proper lady), but Kathleen had just picked Alex up and snapped that all she cared about was her daughter eating, directing the maid to take her to the kitchen.

It had still been a long process of trial and error to find what she'd eat readily, but they did manage to get her to eat a little bit here and there, enough to keep her health up, and in that process the three of them had grown quite close.

As a result, Alex had ended up spending a quite a bit of her time growing up in the kitchens with Lou, even more so after Kathleen married Alan Waterman and found that she was expected to be going out to functions and off on business trips with him all the time, because Lou was the only one other than Kathleen that Alex was comfortable with.

This was how Lou came to be one of the most important people in Alex's life, and the reason that Kathleen took her along on the trip to see Alex at her school (while Casey had been truthful about Miss Porter's visiting restrictions, he _had_ lied in omitting the fact that Lou was also on Alex's approved visitors' list).

When they saw Alex, she was loving it at Miss Porter's, the only detractor for her was how much she was missing the two of them and Uncle Albert, so with that confirmed, there was another visit that they had to make while they were up there.

There _was_ one thing that Miss Porter had said to Kathleen while they were there that had raised some serious questions, but she decided that that could wait until they were back in New York.

When she'd asked the law firm to make the arrangements for their visit, Kathleen had also asked Jim Goodman to make the arrangements for them to do another inspection on the house near Miss Porter's School while they were in Farmington, and that was where she and Lou went when they left the school.

After they'd looked over the house, Kathleen asked Lou whether the kitchens were up to her standards? Lou looked at her strangely, but just to be sure, looked them over again with a more critical eye before she pronounced them quite good enough for her and asked why that was an issue?

Kathleen looked at her. "Because we're buying this house and we will be living up here, Alex and me, and I'm hoping you and maybe one or two others to help run the house."

"But, how can you do that? I thought your husband had tied up all of your money in his schemes?"

Kathleen smiled grimly. "He did, but Alex's father and his friends are rich and powerful, and they've already commenced proceedings to get me a divorce from him. It's almost certain that we'll lose Aunt Martha's house to clear out those parts of Alan's debts that I'm held responsible for, but they've promised me that they'll get something suitable for Alex and I once we're shot of Alan."

"When we brought Alex up here to get her enrolled, Missus Barton brought up the fact that if we bought a house up here, Alex could be going to Miss Porter's to get a good education while she lives at home with me, with us. You're a part of our family Lou, and I do hope you'll come with us!"

Lou gave her an 'are you crazy?' look. "Miss Kathleen, you know full well that the only reason I stayed on after Miss Martha died was because I couldn't leave the two of you! Of course I'll come if you move here!"

Kathleen gave her a relieved smile as she went on. "Anyway, we inspected a number of houses while we were up here, and this one seemed the best. I like it, it meets all our needs and Miss Porter's is just down the street, so I wanted you to look it over to see if it met with your approval. As we're in agreement on the house and Alex seems quite happy at Miss Porter's, I'll ask the law firm to make the arrangements for the purchase of the house. Oh, by the way, it will be the Coburn household. Once I'm shot of Alan, they're changing my name… Back to Coburn."

Lou looked around. "This is all well and good, but what are we to live on? We'll need money to pay bills, buy food and the like."

Kathleen shook her head. "We haven't gone into the details yet as we had hardly enough time to get the main things sorted out, but I know that Johnny and the others will make sure that we're provided for, at least until I can work things out to provide for us myself. There were some parts of my father's and Aunt Martha's fortunes that Alan couldn't access because they were locked, maybe with the law firm's assistance I might be able to get them unlocked, so we will be able to live on that."

Lou gave a satisfied nod as she looked around. "It sounds like we'll manage quite fine then."

She suddenly stopped and turned back to Kathleen. "What about Albert though? He's managed Miss Martha's household as her butler for twenty years and he cares for you and Alex like I do, it just wouldn't be the same without him!"

Kathleen nodded. "I know. I would have liked for him to see the house as well, but while Alan would accept that Alex would want to see you, it would have given the game away if Albert came with us. I've had a word to him, and he'll be joining us here..."

She gave a smile then. "Albert can be the man of the house."

That got a grin from Lou, and with that they went out to the waiting carriage to catch the train back to New York.

At the first opportunity, Kathleen contacted Jim Goodman and asked him to arrange for the purchase of the house near Miss Porter's, and also asked him to send a telegram to John Casey for her. As Jim had to code the message to be sent he knew the content and chuckled, this was going to be interesting.

'Johnny, just when were you going to tell me that Mrs Barton's Uncle Sam was actually President Grant? Alex is doing fine at Miss Porter's, and we will be taking that house near the school, but Miss Porter was quite anxious to make sure that both I and President Grant were happy with the arrangements that had been made for Alex! When will you be back over here? It is apparent that we need to discuss the situation that we are in rather more than we have to date!'


	3. Two Weddings and Three Funerals

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

They were in Los Angeles for a few more days as they got what they needed together before they headed out. Mei made use of that time to get used to riding the mules, because while she was quite a good rider, all the mounts that she had ridden before this were at least two or three hands smaller, so it was quite an adjustment, as was learning how to ride side saddle. She'd also been practising with the team's pistols, carbines and bladed weapons, but she'd started that before they went to New York, and she was doing pretty well there.

John received Kathleen's telegram a bit before they left for Bakersfield. Sarah couldn't help giggling at the sight of the sender's name (Storm Cloud) when he showed her the message, as she could well imagine that Kathleen's expression would have been showing how she got that name as she was writing this missive, because her anger showed through in her words, and she could see how nervous John was about the prospect of facing Kathleen to sort this out.

She got control of her reaction quickly and told him to let Kathleen know that they would be back in time for her divorce proceedings and the dissolution of any connections between herself and Alan Waterman, but they'd probably need at least three to four weeks' notice to get back if they were needed to be back earlier.

Unbeknownst to John, she sent a separate telegram to Kathleen herself, pointing out that John hadn't told her about Uncle Sam for the same reason, in fact, that Uncle Sam hadn't told Sarah about John's real identity. It wasn't his secret to tell, it was her's, and he'd been respecting her confidence. When she put it like that, Kathleen did understand and accept it, and she sent back a short but eloquent response. 'Black Widow, Thank you, you may let Johnny know he's off the hook if you so choose, Storm Cloud.' Sarah considered telling him, but decided to leave him to stew for a little longer.

* * *

Before they'd left New York, they'd secured the services of two of the most experienced divorce lawyers in New York (indeed, these two between them had won the majority of the successful divorce suits on the east coast, which arguably made them the best divorce lawyers in the country).

These two lawyers were associated with two different (often opposing) law firms, but given the benefit their law firms had accrued from their association with Memphis Trading by way of Tolbert, Ives and Jager, they were both more than willing to work together with their primary competition on this case. They had taken complete charge of the divorce proceedings and they were progressing well.

In the meantime, Tolbert, Ives and Jager had secured the purchase of the house in Farmington (which was to be known as Coburn House), and had begun proceedings for Kathleen's name change to Kathleen Ann Coburn. They were only awaiting the successful conclusion of the divorce proceedings to submit the change of name.

One item that they'd taken care of as a matter of priority up front was arranging to have a record of the marriage of Alexander John Coburn to Kathleen Ann McHugh (just before her father was killed in '58), inserted into the Nevada Territory's record books, in order to provide a veneer of legitimacy if Waterman's lawyers investigated her first marriage, which they would if they were worth their salt.

They'd also formally listed Adele as Adele Petit, a Free Creole of Color woman of similar age from a good family in New Orleans when they officially recorded her as a special employee of the government attached to their team (not a Secret Service Agent, but an official member of the team). This was mainly done to protect her when Waterman's lawyers looked into the ones who took Alex to Miss Porter's in hope of finding a way to discredit them (as Sarah and Hattie fully expected them to do), but it also formalised her place in the team and society.

The original Adele Petit and her family had been victims of the Old One during the war and, like its other victims, there was no record of what happened to them. Chuck had chosen her name for Adele when she started working with them because she resembled an older version of the original Adele Petit enough to be accepted as her.

The team at Tolbert, Ives and Jager had also completed the searches for associations of Kathleen's name with Alan Waterman's 'business' enterprises. The results of these searches had been surprising however, in that she was not listed as holding any part of Waterman's enterprises. Sarah and Hattie (and Chuck) had readily accepted that Jim Goodman's hypothesis on the matter was most likely correct. This was that Waterman had wanted to keep all the assets (and therefore money) under in his name only to make it more difficult for Kathleen to have access to the resources that she'd need to leave him.

The benefit (for Kathleen) in this was that they'd confirmed that the only part of Waterman's dealings that she was directly associated with was that the property that she'd inherited from her Aunt Martha was encumbered as security for some of his enterprises. She had had time to accept that the house would be forfeit to deal with the debts associated with those enterprises, but they were looking to play this matter quick but careful, in hope that that they'd be able to retain as much of the value of the house as possible for Kathleen to support herself and Alex.

To this end, Tolbert, Ives and Jager had been actively pursuing her options along a number of avenues. Firstly, the matter of the 'locked' elements of her inheritance from both her father and aunt that she'd mentioned had been looked into and they were working to have them unlocked once she was free and clear from Waterman.

Secondly, they'd identified all shared assets that Waterman currently had the right to use as Kathleen's husband and arranged the paperwork to ensure that those assets would be used to discharge as much of the debt that Kathleen was associated with as possible. They'd put holds on any shared funds and liens on any property to prevent him removing or selling any of it without her authority once he had been advised of the divorce proceedings.

Thirdly, they had drawn up the paperwork to legally separate Kathleen from Waterman and any of his enterprises, along with separating _him_ from any of Kathleen's properties or assets.

Fourthly, they'd secretly negotiated the sale of the house in New York, and had drawn up the paperwork to use the money from the sale of the house to discharge any remaining debt directly associated with the securities that she'd signed the authorities for.

The plan was that these actions would be executed as soon as the divorce was granted, effectively severing all and all connections between Waterman and Kathleen, and hence the remaining assets that she owned. Their intent was to present the paperwork that had been prepared once the ruling was handed down for the divorce and have the judge rule that these were the terms of the settlement and that Waterman had no future claim to anything of Kathleen's.

They fully expected argument from Waterman and his lawyer, so they'd prepared detailed records of the inheritances that Kathleen had received, and what Waterman had spent her inheritance on, including proof that Kathleen had no ownership of the enterprises or assets that her inheritance had paid for, and details of all shared and private accounts of both of them to show where the money went. They'd also prepared records of just what Waterman had contributed to the family's fortunes (IE: _Nothing_ ) to show that he had no rights to any remaining assets.

* * *

While Sarah, Hattie, Chuck and the team at Tolbert, Ives and Jager were assisting with Kathleen's divorce matters, John and the boys were going to their Rancho every day until the previous tenants departed. This departure was delayed by over a day though because John presented them with a list of equipment and the like that belonged to the rancho but they'd removed and carted off to their new site. They were advised in _very_ strong terms that these had to be returned or paid for.

Once those items, and the other items that had been found to be damaged, had been returned in good condition, replaced or paid for to John's satisfaction and all of their concern's equipment and other chattels had been removed, John and Tom had a word with the one in charge of the concern. The point of this discussion was to ensure that he understood exactly what would happen to his people, and him in particular, if he, their men or anyone associated with them in any way _ever_ came anywhere near the rancho again. The way he lit out appeared to indicate that he had gotten the message loud and clear.

Once they were gone, the people who Jane had organised to take over running the rancho started moving in and repairing what was needed to make the place workable again. The Chinese girls soon started moving in and working alongside the others. The families who'd taken some of them in actually made up some of the ones Jane had organised. This helped as it meant that they knew and were comfortable with them.

Anna had been hoping to come with them on this trip, but they had to point out that they couldn't afford to be held up and having a brand new person on the team would most likely do that. Ellie also reminded her that the Chinese girls still needed her help, because Chuck and Mei had to go on this trip and she was the only other one in their group who could speak Chinese. Anna grudgingly accepted this and spent what time she could with Isaiah before the team left.

* * *

Once they'd done everything that they could to set things in motion for Kathleen and the rancho, they packed the wagons, hitched up the team, saddled their mounts and departed Los Angeles, heading north towards Bakersfield.

They did thirty miles on the first day, managing to get into Petroleopolis with enough time to set up camp while it was still light, even with Chuck, Sarah and a guard detail stopping at Mission San Fernando for a while to negotiate with Dr. Gelsich for a stake in the oil company that he'd started for the oil stakes in Pico Canyon, and having to do the push to get the wagons up over Fremont Pass and through Beale's Cut.

They had been cautious with Fremont Pass and separated the wagons, putting fresh teams on both for the climb. Mei and Adele (as the lightest members of the party, and also having the freshest mounts) took the second wagon, with four mules in harness, and they had the usual team of six on the first wagon. It appeared that they'd underestimated their mules though, as they didn't falter at all on the way over the Pass.

Chuck and Sarah felt a little guilty that they hadn't caught up to the main group in time to help get the wagons over the pass because they had been ambling along, marvelling in the spectacular scenery and the feat that was Beale's Cut itself rather than pushing to catch up. When they tried to apologise though John just waved it off, pointing out that the rest of them had been doing the same thing, and there weren't any problems anyway. Later that night Sarah decided to relent and showed him Kathleen's message, because he had been nice about their tardiness while they were enjoying the scenery.

Once they'd set up camp in Petroleopolis, they had some discussions with Sanford Lyons and made a minor investment with his oil business as well. This was much like their railroad investment in San Diego, of no great importance and primarily to ensure that they'd be advised if the Culper Ring (or Fulcrum as the west coast elements apparently referred to themselves) tried to force their way into the oil market there.

In the morning they headed up through the San Francisquito Canyon to San Francisquito Pass and on up north to La Laguna de Chico Lopez, the distance covered was only twenty seven miles, but it was still a fairly hard push up to San Francisquito Pass for the mules, even with a team of eight hauling the wagons.

The next day was rather longer, nearly forty two miles to get to the old Fort Trejon site to camp, but it was nowhere near as hard as the climb up to the Pass had been.

The last leg into Bakersfield was another long one, thirty eight miles, but the only real difficulty involved was controlling their descent down the steep Grapevine Grade. They weren't doing much on this trip, just ambling along as a group, with troopers on both wagons to man the brakes and half a dozen troopers forming a rear guard behind that.

When they arrived in Bakersfield, they set up camp just outside the town and, as usual, Chuck's team, along with Tom and Andy and the security details following them, began circulating to pick up what information they could. The main difference from their previous operations was that Mei was now poking about, talking to the Chinese in the area to see what she could find out from them.

While they knew that Mei was quite capable of looking after herself, Chuck, John, Sarah and Hattie still insisted that the sergeants personally head up the security details for her, and ordered them to ensure that they didn't let her out of their sight while she was talking to people.

There _were_ a number of occasions when men attempted to grab her (their intentions were quite obvious), and when that happened the sergeants and troopers closed in to beat the men, shouting at them for trying to interfere with their property (apologising profusely to Mei afterwards for what they said, of course).

There weren't many concerns that were worth getting involved with in the oil fields around Bakersfield, so they managed to negotiate stakes in the few that were worth the effort within a week and a half. They found some evidence that the Culper Ring (or rather, Fulcum) had been nosing about in the oil fields, but so far as they could determine, no Fulcrum people were about while they were there. When it came time to move on, however, they had a change of plan.

The coal areas that they'd intended getting a stake in to keep the Ring/Fulcum out of were largely static and hence nothing was likely to happen there in a hurry. They discovered however that the silver and gold mining activities in Kern County and Mojave areas were a lot more active and volatile than word going back east had given them to believe, so after discussing the matter they agreed to try to establish a foothold in these areas. With that, once they'd stocked up on supplies they headed up to the Keysville Mining District. They were starting to wonder why something always seemed to come up when they were about to move into the coal areas.

In the mining districts, they pushed things through with more alacrity than they had in the past, because they were mindful of the promises that they had made to Kathleen that they'd be there in time for her divorce proceedings. Sarah and Chuck were planning on using their own marriage license (which was of course witnessed by Ulysses S Grant and Julia Grant) as a trump card to sway the judge if necessary when Waterman's lawyer tried to attack Kathleen's integrity and honour, which they were bound to do, and they had to be there to do that.

As a result, they spent little more than a week gathering information and negotiating for stakes in mines and concerns in the Keysville Mining District before moving on, as there no evidence of Fulcrum there.

From there they headed to the Coso Mining District.

Chuck was using memories from the Old One's victims who'd been from, or travelled through, this region to lead the party to the permanent water holes in the arid Mojave Desert country they were passing through. Luckily, he didn't have to use the storyline of reading maps and reports of expeditions and surveys through the region and remembering what he'd read as he had in Colorado, because the whole group was in on his secret now. It had basically come down to the argument Chuck used for John and the others, these men were too bright to be fooled by the stories and too observant to miss the signs that something was off, so they were all told while they were on the loop through the gold and silver areas, Adele too. This made life much easier, and it also protected the secret better as none of them would be asking questions in front of outsiders.

It only took them a few days to reach the mines of the Coso Mining District, and they spent little more than a week gathering information and negotiating for stakes in some of the general mines, as the big fish in this area were the Cerro Gordo Mines, and they were fairly certain that they'd be seeing Fulcrum activity up around there, even if they didn't find any down below.

It didn't take them long to identity the Fulcrum activity at the Cerro Gordo Mines after they got up there, so some of their party were keeping watch on the ones involved while the others were gathering information and negotiating for enough of a stake in the mines to keep them out. As soon as they were free to do so, John, Hattie, Mei and Tom with half of his troopers descended on the Fulcrum camp.

Chuck had gone out to observe the Fulcrum group with John and had identified the Fulcrum/Ring players who were in it, so John's team knew who they needed to take alive for questioning. When the time came, the rest were dealt with quickly and decisively when they tried to fight.

As per their usual procedure, John and the sergeants dragged the Fulcrum/Ring players off into the woods to 'question' them. They got some useful information from them, but they couldn't report it back to Washington until the next time they reached a telegraph station, and that was at least a week away for the group (if it was important enough, they could have got a rider to Bakersfield in two days, but they had yet to find out anything critical enough to merit doing that).

After a week or so, they'd done what deals that were necessary and/or worth doing and John and the others had their information, so they packed up and headed back down to Swansea on Owens Lake. They spent a few more days there collecting information and negotiating stakes in the key smelting operations to lock out any Fulcrum/Ring interference.

On the Twenty Fifth of March, they left Swansea and headed northwest around Owens Lake to Lone Pine. Their original intention was to just pass through Lone Pine and keep going on to Independence in the Kearsarge Mining District, but they'd had a wearing couple of weeks up to that point, so they decided to camp just outside of Lone Pine so that they could enjoy the pleasures of 'civilisation' one last time before they headed on up the valley.

Part of the reason for this was that once they'd completed their next task, well over half of the group would be riding on up through the Owen Valley on their way to Reno where they'd pick up the train to go back to New York to deal with the drama of Kathleen's divorce and the end of any connections between her and Alex and Alan Waterman around the middle of April.

It was up at Independence where the group would be splitting, once they'd looked into activity up there and done any deals that they deemed to be important or profitable enough to be worth doing.

Bill would be taking the wagons, half of the troopers (including Isaiah, because they'd felt guilty about not being able to let Anna come along) and twenty one of the mules back to Los Angeles, while the rest of them would head on up the valley on their mules, with two pack mules.

* * *

In the early hours of the morning, they were seriously questioning their decision to remain at Lone Pine, as the world seemed to turn upside down. Because it was a nice, balmy night, they had all been sleeping out in the open, something that they were thankful of when the massive earthquake hit because the wagons were both rocking violently on their wheels, almost fit to tip over.

The minor shake they'd felt nine days earlier had been nothing compared to this. This was like nothing that any of them had ever experienced (not even the Old One's thousands of years of memories held anything quite like it), or ever wished to experience again, something that Chuck and Sarah were reminded of thirty four years later in San Francisco when they were again rousted from their bed before dawn by the earth moving.

* * *

When an earthquake once again jolted them from their sleep that morning, they instantly remembered Lone Pine and grabbed their clothes, weapons (well, time hadn't changed them that much) and money and were out on the fire escape lickety split, leaving everything else behind as they ran down the stairs. They didn't stop to dress (other than shrugging coats on) until they were out in the street and clear of the collapsing buildings.

The memory of what they'd gone through in Lone Pine so long ago had undoubtedly saved them, as no-one else ran out when they did, and the hotel began to collapse almost on their heels. They finished getting dressed and looked to see if they could help anyone, but the collapse of multi-story buildings resulted far more destruction than those adobe houses in Lone Pine had, and there was little they could do, so they girded their loins, gripped their weapons and headed for the docks where their ship was, hoping to get out of this nightmare.

* * *

Their first priority was to quiet and secure their terrified mules and make sure everyone was OK. That was when they found that they'd lost three of the men when they were crushed by falling rocks in the quake. As there wasn't anything they could do for the ones who died, as soon as the earth had stopped heaving enough, most of them headed into the town to see what help they could give because they could hear people and animals screaming in town.

They worked with the people of the town to dig survivors, and bodies, out of the piles of rubble that had been the majority of the town's buildings less than half an hour ago. Ellie went to work, tending to the injured (and Chuck as well, as no one was asking to see anyone's qualifications to doctor people at that point, they were just happy to be tended to) while the others helped dig through the rubble, looking for survivors.

By dawn, everyone who could be saved had been, and they started wondering about what other areas had been effected. Half the party went back to Swansea and Cerro Gordo to see what damage had occurred there but luckily, aside from some damage to the smelters and a few of the buildings, both towns had largely been spared, though there was a bigger problem for the businesses of Swansea, in that the land that the town was on had risen, making the pier that they needed for the all important shipments back and forth across the lake unusable.

Chuck and Sarah had some discussions with their new business partners in Swansea and increased their investment to aid the move of the businesses (and the town) to a more viable site further down the lake, then the party headed back to Lone Pine.

On the way back they noted something that they'd somehow missed on the way to Swansea (possibly due to worries about what they'd find when they got there), all along the western side of the valley, a wall had risen overnight, the earthquake had changed the very landscape of the valley.

As nothing more could be done for the people of Lone Pine, once they'd buried the three men they lost, the party packed up and headed up the valley to Independence. Everyone was quiet and contemplative on the way to Independence, having just seen how quickly and easily the hand of God could smite down feeble mankind, but none were more effected than Tom and Andy.

It was obvious that they had something on their minds, but what that was didn't come out until they went to John and Chuck to request permission to ask Hattie and Ellie (respectively) to marry them. Tom and Andy knew the women that they loved, so there was no question in either of their minds about who _they_ would regard as the people who had the right to give that permission.

Neither Chuck nor John were at all hesitant to give their blessings when asked, nor were they at all surprised to hear the happy (and all too vocal in Ellie's case) acceptances of their proposals. This happy news was actually enough to reduce the pall that had hung over them from Lone Pine.

When they reached Independence, there was much damage from the earthquake, and they heard that a baby had died in one of the buildings that had collapsed, but luckily the deaths and injuries there were nothing compared to what had occurred in Lone Pine. They gave their reports to the commander of Camp Independence, leaving out any mention of their actually being there when it happened or that they'd lost three men, because they didn't want to get delayed there.

After the events of Lone Pine, they lacked the enthusiasm to drag out their activities around the Kearsarge Mines, so they collected what information they could and made some deals to block out the Fulcrum/Ring incursions, but it was less than a week before they wound up their activities and moved on.

* * *

As planned, Independence was where the group split up, Bill would be taking most of their luggage back with the wagons and now twelve of the troopers, while the rest of them would be heading north through the valley. They would be camping rough for at least five or six days until they reached Reno and the railroad, unless they could find lodgings along the way, and they weren't too confident of being able to do that.

To that end, they carried light bedrolls and what food, clothes etc they'd need for the trip, but they'd be taking no more than was absolutely necessary on their mounts and the two pack mules. This meant that the four sniper rifles and Tom, Andy and the troopers' repeaters had all been packed away for Bill to take back with him, trying to cut their mounts' load as much as they could.

While they'd been in the Kearsarge Mining District, they'd rested their mules as much as they could, giving them plenty of feed and water, because they knew that they might have to push them hard on the trip to the railroad.

When everything was packed and ready, they said their goodbyes to Bill and his team, mounted their mules and headed north. One of Bill's troopers had a different task, his job was to take two mules and get to Bakersfield as fast as possible, in two days or less, to send the coded telegrams to Tolbert, Ives and Jager to organise getting the Pullman car and horse cars attached to a train and waiting for them at Reno when they arrived. He also had to send a telegram to the President's office now to advise that they'd lost three of their troopers and would have to go through the selection process to determine suitable replacements for them.

He would rest the mules for a day in Bakersfield to give them a chance to recover, then head back towards Los Angeles via the way they'd come originally. The plan was for him to meet up with Bill and the others in Petroleopolis, (they were hoping to do the two hundred mile trip via the mule train route to Los Angeles in four to five days) and then head back into Los Angles with them.

The rider sending the telegrams would have to ride over fifty miles more than the rest of his party, but if he didn't manage to send those messages off in time, they'd lose up to four or five days in Reno while they waited for their railroad cars and that would seriously impact their preparations for Kathleen's divorce proceedings.

* * *

While Bill was taking his group back to Los Angeles, the main party headed up the valley towards Reno. While they were working to a tight schedule though, they still had enough time to take in the scenery, and it was truly spectacular.

That wall that had risen up on the western side of the valley did concern them, as they knew that at some point they'd have to climb it where the trail crossed it, but they would have to handle that when they came to it.

They reached the point where they had to cross the wall when they branched off the Owens Valley towards the end of the first day, but it wasn't anything like the trial that they'd been dreading, because in the week since the earthquake others had already had to tackle the obstacle and they'd dug a ramp that wagons could be dragged up at a low point close enough to the trail that it wasn't much of a detour.

They paced themselves to spare the mules where they could, and were still enjoying the spectacular scenery that they were travelling through, but even so they'd still reached Carson City in Nevada on the morning of the fifth day. What they'd seen on that ride was something that would live with them for the rest of their lives, the sights in the Owens Valley had been spectacular, but the beauty of the Sierra Nevada range was even more moving.

In Carson City, they quickly arranged for three boxcars for their mules and seats in the passenger car for themselves on the train to Reno and they were on the train just past noon. While they were there, they also telegraphed the law firm to confirm that the arrangements had been made for their cars on the train to New York, and were happy to hear that the cars were already waiting for them in Reno.

Their ride to Reno on the train was less than an hour and a half, and when they got there, they had a message waiting for them to say that their cars would be hitched to a train due to arrive in three more hours. That meant that, once they'd cared for their mules, ate, bought some more clothes, food and sundries for the trip and got cleaned up, it was almost time for the train to arrive.

It was a nice surprise to find that they had Otis working 'their' Pullman car again, and he wasted no time getting them settled into the car. With 'their' cars already hitched together and the mules loaded into the horse cars when the train pulled into Reno, it took no longer than the planned stop before the train pulled out, and they were headed east.

* * *

The train ride east was uneventful, they'd sent the coded telegraphs with any significant information that they'd gathered while they were waiting for the train to arrive in Reno, so all that they had to do, other than look after their mules, was plan two weddings. They did also have to talk about replacing the men they lost, but there wasn't anything they could do about that until they were back in Washington.

Now that Tom and Andy had proposed, and given the reason they did so just then, neither couple wanted to wait any longer. Ellie and Andy had been moving towards this for almost as long as Chuck and Sarah had been together so, seeing as they'd been married over a year now, Ellie and Andy decided that it was time they were hitched. Hattie and Tom were all too aware of how quickly everything could be taken away, so now that they'd committed to each other, they just wanted to move forward too.

The primary complication in the weddings was working out how to get Tom's parents (and Uncle Scottie and Aunt Annella) from Pittsburgh and Hattie's Aunt Carina from Boston to New York in time for a secret wedding a couple of days after they arrived there. Hattie also wanted her mother there, but she she'd was sure that she could come up with a ruse to get her mother to her wedding while her father was at the office.

Andy had less complications to deal with, they had to go up to Coburn House in Farmington to finalise the purchase of the house and organise a few things at the house as soon as they arrived, and his family was just over in Hartford so he was going to send a telegram to his parents, advising them of the day that he and Ellie were being married in Hartford.

He'd be telling them that it was to be a secret affair that no-one else could know about, and asking them if they would be attending on a 'take it or leave it' basis. If they agreed on those terms, he would give them the time and the place, if not, he and Ellie would be married in New York along with Tom and Hattie. One advantage that Ellie had over the rest of them was that her entire family was right there with her, so she didn't need to chase up anyone.

They had to stop in Washington to give a report to Uncle Sam and leave their mules at Cranston Farm where they could recuperate so Hattie, Tom and Andy would take that opportunity to send their respective telegrams.

When Hattie worried about how she was to get word to her mother without her father finding out, Sarah laughed at her and pointed out that as well as having all of the legitimate and other resources of their law firm available to handle whatever they needed, they could get pretty much anything else that they wanted from the other sources that they had access to as well.

Hattie smiled at that, slapping her forehead and hugging Sarah before trotting off to talk to their nominal boss, 'Uncle' Roan Montgomery. Sure enough, before she'd left his office, he'd sent orders off to a female Secret Service Agent in New York to contact Mrs Quinlan and let her know what the arrangements would be to allow her to attend Hattie's wedding (to the man she'd introduced to her over a month ago) without her husband's knowledge.

Their discussion with Uncle Sam about getting replacements for the men they lost didn't go well though, because there just wasn't anyone trustworthy enough, or good enough, to add to their team.

* * *

While the core team were meeting with Uncle Sam about their assignment and the men they lost, and making wedding arrangements, four of the troopers were taking the mules out to the Cranston Farm to put them out to pasture while the party was in New York. They were also bringing back four of the mares, Nyx and three of her quieter sisters, Nox, Selene and Hecate.

The mares had already been trained to saddle and harness, and Sarah would be giving them the additional training they'd need for side saddle riders. Sarah had sent through the measurements for herself, Hattie, Kathleen and Alex to have Mr Landis to make up his special side saddles to fit the mares and they'd picked them up in Kansas City as usual.

Before they returned to California, Chuck had commissioned an elegant lightweight Sefton Landau (with a few unusual features, such the neat folding hood for the driver's seat, which was something that the carriage wrights had never seen before, but heartily approved of), and hooded Tilbury Gig to be built for Coburn House. He'd ordered the collars and harnesses to fit the mares from Mr Landis to make up the rigs for a pair or a team of four for the landau, and a single or tandem hitch for the Tilbury Gig.

Telegrams were also sent to Tolbert, Ives and Jager to take the measurements that they had on file for Ellie, Hattie, Sarah, Mei and Adele to the best seamstresses they could get in New York to have Ellie's and Hattie's bridal gowns made up in time for their arrival. As well as that, gowns for all of them to wear in the wedding parties (the wedding parties were all from their group and they'd agreed that the attendants' dresses would be the same for both weddings) had to be made up, along with other dresses for day and evening wear, as they hadn't been able to bring any dresses with them.

At the same time Andy, Tom, Chuck, John and Weed's measurements were sent out to the tailors for suits for the weddings, along with suits for day and evening wear, and suitable clothes for the rest of the men as well (as none of them had any decent clothes with them).

While they were at it, they also had the new wardrobe that Mei needed and some jackets for the men made up by their dodgy seamstress, so she was a busy lady too.

When they arrived in New York, they knocked up stalls for the mares in the ground floor storehouse in Memphis House, and tried on the clothes that had been made for them, but the people who made them had been good, so there weren't many items to be sent back for adjustments by the seamstresses or tailors.

* * *

With that out of the way, Sarah and Hattie (as Sam and Harry) went down to the Tolbert, Ives and Jager offices with Chuck to ensure that everything was progressing well on Kathleen's case. They wound up the paperwork for Coburn House and confirmed that everything else was ready, and the divorce proceedings were scheduled to commence in six days.

Before Alan Waterman had been advised of the divorce proceedings, Tolbert, Ives and Jager had taken the precaution of engaging the Pinkerton Agency to provide around the clock protection of Kathleen by female Pinkerton Agents, and of the house by male Pinkertons. This proved to be a prudent measure as Waterman had moved to attack Kathleen upon being presented with paperwork for both the divorce, and an order to vacate the house, but the tide had quickly turned on him when he was met by men and women holding pistols on him.

The Pinkertons escorted him from the house and guarded the servants who delivered his clothes and personal belongings to the hotel where he would be staying (until he won the case according to him, not that that was ever going to happen). They did find it amusing to hear that the lawyer he engaged was confident that he could beat the two that they'd engaged for Kathleen, as this meant that he was an idiot, or lying to Waterman (if not both).

With Waterman served with the paperwork for the divorce and Pinkertons on hand to protect Kathleen and keep Waterman out of the house, they collected the mares and boarded the train for Farmington.

They settled the mares into the stables at the house and organised a caretaker to look after them and the house until Kathleen and her staff moved in, though they did use the mares and the Landau to take Ellie, Chuck, Sarah and Hattie to Hartford for Ellie's wedding.

Andy had received the response from his parents before they left Washington, saying that they would comply with all of his requirements and were anxious to meet his bride, so he'd have his parents at their wedding. The law firm had organised a quaint little chapel in Hartford for the wedding, and the men (and Mei and Adele) were waiting at the chapel on the day.

Andy had a few minutes to talk to his parents while they were waiting for the bride to arrive, but he'd almost had his father removed when he muttered more than once that there was no need for Andrew to get married just because the girl was with child. Andy turned away from him to avoid saying something that he may regret, but he suddenly turned back.

"Do you bother to read about _ANYTHING_ outside of Connecticut Father?"

His father responded in a huff. "What are you talking about boy? Of course I do!"

"Did you happen to read about that earthquake in California?"

"Yes, of course, terrible thing, those people dying like that, mind you it would have been worse if it were some place civilised!"

"We were there, we helped dig the dead out of what remained of their homes and we buried three of our own men, _THAT_ is why Eleanor and I are getting married now. Eleanor is the woman that I love and after seeing how quickly everything could be taken away, I wasn't about to wait a minute longer."

His father stared at him with his mouth open, and his mother looked horrified, but at that moment the trooper at the door signalled that the Landau was arriving, so Andy turned and went to the front of the chapel without another word.

Sarah and Hattie entered first and took their place on the left with Mei and Adele, then Chuck walked Ellie down the aisle, taking his place at the groom's side once he'd discharged his duty to give away the bride.

The ceremony was smaller and simpler than what would be traditionally considered acceptable for someone of the Dean family's social standing, but Andy's father swallowed the comments that he was obviously about to make when he caught the look Andy was sending him.

Having a full General step up to the new couple to proffer the President's apologies for not being able to attend due to prior commitments in Washington quite took the wind out of his father's sails, and the happy couple managed to slip away while he was trying to grasp what that meant. Andy's father _was_ affronted that the General hadn't addressed him, considering he was the First Lady's cousin, but his expectations were not a priority for anyone but him.

Two of the troopers took the bride and groom back to Coburn house in the Landau, and then stayed to guard the house with the others who had stayed at the house. To fill in time they rubbed the mares down and cleaned the carriage before they put them away.

The rest of the party stayed at a hotel in Hartford to give the happy couple time to themselves for their wedding night, and John took the opportunity to visit Alex while they were up there.

Alex was excited and happy to see him, and delighted to hear that Ellie and Andy had gotten married, but she once again proved that she was his daughter as she stopped and gave him a suspicious look as she asked why they came to Connecticut to get married?

She accepted the explanation that Andy's parents were in Hartford, so they'd come up so that his family could be there, but he could see that she still thought that there was something else going on that he was hiding from her. John chuckled ruefully to himself, as she was going to be insufferable when she found out about the house in Farmington.

* * *

The next morning, they had to catch the train back to New York, because they had another wedding to arrange for the following day. They looked over the house, checked on the mares and ensured that the caretaker understood his duties, then it was off to the railroad station.

Back in New York, Hattie and Tom had drinks with her Aunt Carina (and Roan, as he'd wrangled an invitation to the wedding as his price for his assistance with organising for Hattie's mother to attend) before they had dinner with Tom's parents. It amused them that Hattie ended up having the reverse of the conversation that Andy had had with his father when her Aunt pointed out that she didn't _HAVE_ to get married, just because she was pregnant.

Hattie looked at her, and then responded. "I don't _HAVE_ to get married Auntie. I'm not pregnant, we want to get married."

She hesitated and looked at Tom, who smiled and nodded at her, so she looked back at her aunt. "Did you see the news about the earthquake in California?"

Her aunt nodded with tears in her eyes. "Yes, those poor people!"

"Well we were there, we were camped right next to the town where most of the people died and we lost three men from our party. Seeing those people when they found the ones that they loved dead, we decided that we weren't going to waste any more time and Tom proposed that day."

Her aunt smiled through her tears as she looked from one to the other. "Well that may not be the most romantic reason I've heard for getting married, but it's probably the best one I've ever heard!"

Hattie smiled back at her, because her aunt's approval was important to her, but there was one thing that she had to make sure was understood.

"You know that Mother is coming tomorrow?" Her aunt nodded with a smirk, and Hattie pointed a finger at her. "No! You will _not_ bait her! I want my wedding to be happy! It wasn't Mama who tried to sell me off to make themselves richer, it was Father. I love you, but I love her too and I want us all to be happy, so if you can't behave, then don't come!"

Her aunt's eyes searched her face for a while, then she nodded. "Alright Hattie, I'll behave. I've missed Lizzie actually, we were so close when we were girls. It will be nice to be able to talk to her again."

Hattie relaxed with a sigh and a smile and said "Thank you Aunt Carina."

With that Hattie embraced her aunt and they went their separate ways, to meet again at the wedding.

Dinner with Tom's parents was easier, as they were nervous about saying the wrong thing. It was obvious from the quick looks they were darting at Hattie's waistline, though, that they had the same notion everyone else did about why the couple were getting married so quickly, which made Tom decide to cut through the process.

"No, Hattie isn't pregnant, we recently went through something that reminded us how quickly everything can be taken away, so we decided not to wait any longer."

His mother looked at him, worried. "What happened Thomas?"

Tom shared a look with Hattie, they were getting tired of discussing this, they all were. "We were in the middle of that earthquake in California, and losing three of our men and seeing families destroyed like that by the hand of God made me decide that I wasn't going to waste my chance to be with her, so I proposed that day."

His mother looked stricken by that, they both did, but his father was a practical man who knew his facts and figures. "But how did you get back here so fast? You were hundreds of miles away from the coast or the railroad?"

Tom nodded. "We rode about two hundred and fifty miles in five days up to Reno, where we picked up the train to get back here."

Joseph looked impressed, just because he didn't like horses didn't mean he didn't know about them. "Two hundred and fifty miles climbing through the mountains in five days? How many horses did you lose?"

"None, our mounts are mules and they'd been bred and selected just for that purpose, to be able to carry their riders far and fast. They're being spelled back in Washington while we do what we have to here to let them recover."

"We will have another problem when we get back though, because President Grant has told us that there isn't anyone available in the Army who can be trusted enough to add into the team, so we're going to be three men down. We've been sailing too close to the wind as it is, I'm afraid that being down three men could put us under."

Joseph looked thoughtful. "Do they have to be Army Tom?"

That prompted a suspicious look from his son. "What are you up to Dad?"

"Trying to help you, because if they don't _have_ to be Army, I think I know where you can get trustworthy and damned good fighters to fill that hole in your Platoon."

Tom's expression hadn't changed. "Go on."

"You remember the Marine detail who were on my frigate, the ones who went with me and served the war out with me on the gunboat?"

Tom just nodded.

"Well Captain Noble and the men he had left at the end of the war were dumped on guard duty at the Arsenal in Washington. The brass didn't appreciate an uppity nigger, as I heard a few of them calling Captain Noble, telling them what they needed to do to make the Marines an effective fighting force. Never mind that the man has a Medal of Honor and was made a Captain purely on his merit in a white unit, they wouldn't take a black man telling _them_ what to do. They assigned him to guard the old stores there and he resigned his commission. The three Sergeants who were the only ones who made it through that last battle with him, and were all awarded Medals of Honor as well, wouldn't remain in a Corps that treated their commander like that so they resigned with him. They're all currently working for the Paterson Company."

He stopped and looked at Tom. "If you need men who are absolutely trustworthy and who can fight better than anyone else I've seen, you have four men in Pittsburgh who would jump at the chance to serve their country again."

Tom looked thoughtful. "Can you give me all the details on them Dad? I know Richard Noble but I don't know the others and we'll need to dig up records of everything they've done to sell the President on this."

Joseph nodded, and pulled out a notepad and pencil to start scribbling down everything relevant he could think of. "You've said that you want the men, but what about Rick? That man earned his Captaincy with blood and sorrow, can't you find a place for him?"

Tom nodded thoughtfully. "If we can get this through at all, I should be able to sell the President on adding another Captain to the team. As you said, his men resigned rather than desert their commander so they aren't likely to sign up without him. I'll need to talk to them, but if we can show a strong enough case and they're interested, I think there's a good chance I can get the President to reinstate the four of them to serve in my Platoon."

They talked for a little longer then parted, as they would see each other at the wedding tomorrow.

* * *

Like Ellie and Andy's wedding, Hattie and Tom's was a simple affair, the law firm had made the arrangements for them to be wed in a pretty little church in one of the older districts of the city. Being a military, rather than high society family, Tom's parents weren't at all bothered by the lack of ceremony.

Tom, Chuck and John would have been murdered by Hattie if she knew that much of the time they were supposed to be getting ready, they were discussing what Joseph had raised about replacements for the men they'd lost. She would have killed them twice if she knew that they were planning to have a meeting with Captain Noble and his men _at her wedding_ because Joseph had wired them in Pittsburgh to get them up to New York as soon as Tom and Hattie left.

While Hattie's family _was_ high society, her mother was just happy to be able to see her daughter get married, as she never expected that she'd have that chance after Hattie left home as a teenager. As for Aunt Carina, well she enjoyed anything that slapped society in the face, so she loved it.

Hattie's mother was waiting to see her when she arrived, and in the midst of their happy reunion, Hattie stopped and turned to John. "Johnny, would you mind if I had Mama walk me down the aisle instead of you?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Not at all, I think that's a wonderful idea."

With that he kissed her on the cheek and went on into the church.

When John came in without Hattie, Tom looked worried, but John smiled as he leaned in to whisper. "Don't worry, she's coming, I've just been replaced."

Tom's eyes widened as he started to ask "Do you mean..", but at that moment the bridal march started and he looked down the aisle to see Hattie with her mother at her side. He smiled at them as they started down the aisle together.

As with Ellie and Andy's wedding, the General came to proffer the President's apologies for not being able to attend, and he talked to Tom's father for a while as they'd known each other in the war (which would have outraged Andy's father if he'd known).

* * *

After the wedding, Hattie told Tom that he had fifteen minutes to talk to these men, and then she was coming after him and she would be very unhappy if he made her damage what belonged to her now.

Tom bolted just as the fifteen minutes were up, leaving Rick and his Sergeants talking to Chuck, John and Hank. Rick and his Sergeants were dubious at first, unable to believe that someone this young could be a Colonel, or that they had two Colonels, a Major and a Captain in such a small unit. Rick pointed out that by all logic, there was no room for another Captain and three Sergeants in a group with that much brass already. Chuck laughed.

"That argument may be valid if we played by the rules, but we don't. What you haven't seen yet is that at the moment we already have thirteen Sergeants out of twenty nine men, with you three" (nodding to the Sergeants) "that will make it sixteen out of thirty two, with the other half being Corporals. Oh, and with you four, the Platoon will also have eighteen Medal of Honor holders out of thirty five men as well. I have one too but I'm not actually part of the Platoon. Knowing that, do you really think the President would worry about the fact that we have a Major and two Captains leading a Platoon that's entirely made up of Sergeants and Corporals of that standard?"

He shared a look at Hank and continued. "Don't worry about what will or won't fit into a normal Platoon, those rules don't apply to us. The only restrictions on who it's made up of is that the men must be totally trustworthy, better than the rest, able to work together and willing to do what needs to be done. We can't have an army, even though we could quite often use one, so we've put together the best out there and we gave them the best weapons we could to even the odds. That's what we're asking you four to be a part of, are you interested, and can you make the commitment we need of you?"

Rick looked at the Sergeants, taking in their expressions and nods before turning back to Chuck. "Yes Sir, if you can get us back in, we would be honoured to serve with you!"

He hesitated. "If I could ask though Sir, why us? You obviously could have the pick of the Army, and Marines for that matter, why reinstate us to add us to your team?"

Chuck snorted. "Because from what we've been told you're the best! The men in this Platoon have all been hand picked by Tom and Hank, but we lost three men in that Earthquake in California a couple of weeks ago and the Army doesn't have anyone available who meets our standards to replace them. You four have been vouched for by someone we trust as having the honour and ability to fit into the Platoon, so we're here now asking you if you want to join."

"You'd take us sight unseen on the Commodore's word? We'd do anything the Commodore tells us to, he earned that in the war, but why would _you_ do this just on his word?"

Chuck looked him in the eye. "The word of someone we trust is worth more than anything else to us. Joseph knows his son, and he knows what we need, so when he tells us that you're the kind of men we need to bring us back up to full numbers, that's good enough for us."

He stopped, looking at John and then back at Rick. "In this group, we believe that it's what's inside a person and what they do that matters Captain Noble, not the colour of a man's skin or for that matter whether they _are_ a man. Do any of you four have an issue with taking orders from women? We have four women in our team, Agent Walker, Agent Quinlan, Agent Helsing and Agent Kuang. As agents they are above you in the group, so when they tell you to do something we need you to do it without question, is that a problem for you?" He looked at the Sergeants "For _any_ of you?"

Rick looked at the Sergeants to get their responses before turning back to Chuck and shaking his head. "No Sir! I'm coming to see that people aren't in this group unless they're the best, so I can believe that if these ladies give us an order, it will be for a good reason. I doubt that they'd give us the type of stupid orders that many of the _men_ we've reported to have." He smiled. "And from what I've heard here, I expect that damned few men would be able to stand up to any ladies who rate being in this group anyway."

Chuck snorted. "You've got that right! I certainly wouldn't want to stand up to my wife or sister, and Tom and Andy can't stand up to their wives either."

Seeing the look on Rick's face he explained. "Agent Walker is my Wife, Agent Quinlan is Tom's new wife and Agent Helsing is my older sister, and Andy's new wife….." he darted a look at John but decided against saying what he was thinking about Mei. "This operation started when I met Sarah and sent her information to pass on to the President, we were married before the month was out. Andy met Ellie when he was assigned to the Company that was sent to bring Sarah and I to Washington the first time, they grew together working in the group and were just married. Tom met Hattie when she crossed paths with our operation and they grew together after she was assigned to the team, it's their wedding we're at now. I wouldn't be surprised if Mei finds her man in the group as well. On top of that, John has been like an uncle to Sarah since they met in the war and she's been close to Hattie for years since they met as agents as well. I've been close to Tom, Hank and half of the men in the Platoon since we served together in the war as well so this group is close, we're family."

Rick shook his head as he tried to take in what the Colonel told him, this was certainly going to be an interesting group to be part of!

With that, they sorted out a few more details and Chuck sent Rick and the men off to check out of their hotel and move into Memphis House, as it was a foregone conclusion that they'd be joining the group, so the sooner they started becoming part of the group the better.


	4. Divorce, and a New Life

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

They were happy that both weddings went off well, even though Andy's father's attitude had dampened the mood of his and Ellie's a little, but the happy couples didn't have long to bask in their wedded bliss before they all had to dive into the mire of Kathleen's divorce proceedings.

The General who had been offering Uncle Sam's apologies at the two weddings (General Sherwood) had actually been sent to New York by the President to offer the official government testimony for the Barton party, and to ensure that sensitive government secrets were protected. Uncle Sam had only added the wedding apologies to his duties when he found out about the weddings.

They were fortunate with the divorce hearing actually, because not only was the lawyer that Alan Waterman had chosen to engage an overly ambitious hack with delusions of grandeur, he'd also managed to earn the judge's ire right from the offset by opening with a demand (not a request) for an adjournment so that they could get a proper accounting of the assets his client was entitled to.

The judge had just looked at him for a minute before saying. "So your client does not question that there are grounds for a divorce here then?"

Waterman's lawyer looked excited. "Not at all your honour, we will show that there is clear evidence of infidelity on Missus Waterman's part, starting from the time that her daughter's father reappeared! On top of that, she has been denying my client his marital rights ever since these people" (waving at the Barton party) "turned up."

The judge looked over at Kathleen's lawyers as he tried to stifle the response that he craved to give this fool, only to see them smiling almost eagerly at the prospect of tearing this fool and his client apart. He knew these two, and knew that neither of them would take on a case unless they had enough evidence to almost guarantee a win. Indeed, the only times he'd seen either of them lose was to each other. With that, he smiled to himself and addressed Waterman's lawyer.

"Request for an adjournment denied, proceed!"

"But…"

"Denied!"

* * *

Waterman's lawyer started his presentation by calling Waterman's friends to the stand to tell the court how Kathleen had thrown herself at John as soon as she saw him when he arrived at the function with his Chinese 'companion'. Sarah saw John's fists clenching when he heard what was being insinuated in the way that they described Mei and Kathleen (and her, Ellie and Hattie for that matter), so she reached across to put her hand on his to calm him, that brought him down from the brink and then Mei took his other hand to settle him.

Kathleen's lawyers didn't break a sweat as they discredited Waterman's so-called 'witnesses', and then they called the General to testify, on behalf of the government, as to the character of those who made up the Barton party, because the other lawyer's case seemed to hinge on portraying them as a pack of reprobates and loose women that Kathleen had abandoned her husband for as soon as they'd arrived in town. Waterman's lawyer was getting increasingly frustrated when every demand that he made that he be told just what these people did 'for the government' was ignored, and his aggravation wasn't abetted at all when the General stopped to say.

"Are you hard of hearing son? I'll try to explain this one for you more time. Colonel Casey here was honourably discharged from the Army after the war and he was made a United States Marshal at that time. Colonel Barton" (indicating Chuck) "was also honourably discharged, with the Medal of Honor mind you, at the end of the war, and he went back to university after that as he was still a young man, being hired by the government once he'd graduated. Major Paterson and Captain Dent" (waving to Tom and Andy) "are currently serving and highly regarded Army officers on a special duty assignment with their platoon. Mrs Barton, Mrs Dent and Mrs Paterson, as well as Miss Kuang and Miss Petit" (waving at Sarah, Ellie, Hattie, Mei and Adele in turn) "are all highly valued individuals working for the government, and that is all you are entitled to know."

Waterman's lawyer turned to the judge and demanded (he appeared to have trouble understanding the protocols of the court, or courtesy, in that he never requested anything, he demanded it as if it was his God given right) that he order the General to tell him what he wanted to know. The judge looked at him with scorn and said. "I believe that the General may have a point, son, there's obviously something wrong with your hearing. He's told you more than once that what these people do is government business and not a matter for discussion here."

"But, what of the fact that 'Casey' there faked his death to desert the Army, and then changed his name so that he could fight for the Confederacy against the United States?"

"You'll refer to him with proper respect, as Colonel Casey or Marshal Casey, or I'll have you thrown out of here! But….." He looked at the General.

General Sherwood nodded. "As for the accusations being made in regard to Colonel Casey's history, all I can tell you, your honour, is that the report of how his troop left after they saw him shot off his horse and presumed killed in the Indian action in Nevada is on file in the Army's records. As for how he managed to get out of the wilderness and across the country after he'd lost everything when he was injured and left for dead with rampaging Indians all around him, I couldn't hazard to guess, because I just can't conceive how he did it. But as far as the war goes, well he would have hardly be honourably discharged as a Colonel from the United States Army and be immediately sworn in as a United States Marshall if he'd been a rebel turncoat now, would he? Other than that, all I can say is that he was definitely working for the Union in the war."

"No. Sorry your honour, that's not correct. I can also tell you that there are official records of Lieutenant Alexander Coburn's marriage to Kathleen McHugh in Nevada just before Missus Waterman's father was killed, and also of her capture by the Indians, the fact that Lieutenant Coburn was refused permission to mount any attempt to recover her multiple times, and the fact that she was advised that he was dead when she was recovered from the Indians after his reported death. I have been advised that Missus Waterman's lawyers have transcripts of all these records here if they are required."

Waterman's lawyer had to admit defeat on that point and went on to what they believed was their strongest argument, that Kathleen had gone off with Colonel Casey to enrol their daughter in school at some undisclosed, secret location, and was suspected of having committed adultery with him while they were away.

When the judge looked at Kathleen's lawyers, he knew from their grim smiles that they had this covered. Once again he smiled to himself, so far this was the most interesting divorce case he'd ever presided over, or indeed witnessed.

Kathleen's lawyers first called the Watermans' neighbours to the stand to describe who it was that they had been introduced to and been informed that Kathleen would be travelling with when she took her daughter off to be enrolled in boarding school. As the neighbours' testimony did nothing at all to help his case (it rather trampled it, actually), Alan Waterman's lawyer tried to misdirect at this point, ignoring the neighbours' testimony and instead trying to portray the Barton party as a wanton group heading off for a few days of debauchery. He also questioned whether Chuck and Sarah were really married, as claimed, and implied that Mei was John's mistress or whore.

That last had John on his feet in a rage, but the judge respectfully asked him to take his seat, before advising Waterman's lawyer to be very careful of what he said, and ordering him to apologise to Miss Kuang for his words in a markedly different tone. When John had regained his seat and Waterman's lawyer had made a half arsed attempt at an apology to Mei, the judge looked balefully at Waterman's lawyer before turning to ask Kathleen's lawyers whether they had anything on hand to address the question of the legitimacy of Barton's marriage, or the other claim? That actually drew a big smile from the lawyers and one responded. "Yes, your honour, do I have permission to approach?"

The judge nodded, but his eyes went wide when he saw the witnesses' signatures on the Bartons' (or rather the Bartowskis') marriage license. He held up the document as he looked at the General.

"General Sherwood, I presume that you are aware of what is on this marriage license document?"

The General nodded. "Yes, your honour."

"So there is no question as to the legitimacy of the document then?"

"None what so ever, your honour."

"And the other matter?" (Referring to the fact that the surname on the marriage license was Bartowski, rather than Barton.)

"Is part of what I am not free to discuss your honour." The judge nodded, turning back to Waterman's lawyer and saying.

"The Bartons have been legitimately married for over a year and no further questions on the matter will be allowed."

The documents attesting to the fact that Mei was in fact a noblewoman from one of China's leading families who had come to the United States to escort her brother (her family's heir apparent) to a well regarded boarding school in New York also had him wide eyed, and he made an abject apology to her for the way she'd been treated in his court.

The lawyer approached the bench (without requesting permission) with his hand out, saying "I have the right to see this so called evidence that has been presented", but stopped suddenly when the judge growled.

"If you take one more step I will have you immediately arrested and locked up. I have no idea how you got to be admitted to the bar, but I can assure you that when this is over I will most certainly be asking that question. I have sighted and confirmed the evidence provided, and that is all that you need to know! Now get back there and sit down before I give in to the inclination to have you locked up anyway!"

Waterman's lawyer next tried to establish that John and Kathleen had had a tryst while they were away. He cited as evidence, reports (mostly from Alan Waterman) that her demeanour had been positively 'giddy' when she'd returned, which allegedly showed that she'd been engaged in some kind of nefarious activities while she was away to make her so.

The judge merely looked at Kathleen's lawyers and said. "Gentlemen?"

They smiled and pointed out that the reason that Mrs Waterman reportedly appeared 'giddy' when she returned could well be attributed to her relief that her daughter was now safe, was being given the education that she deserved at her new school, and was free of the increasingly poisonous atmosphere within the Waterman home. They then called the managers of the hotels in Farmington where the group had stayed, along with one of the maids from the hotel where Kathleen had stayed to the stand.

Both managers presented the hotel registers for the night in question, which showed that Kathleen had been sharing a room with Ellie in one hotel, while John had in fact stayed in another hotel, and reported that the behaviour of the entire group had at all times been quite genteel and respectable.

The maid also testified that the ladies had both been in their room every time she'd gone there.

Waterman's lawyer was obviously about to attack the maid and accuse her of lying, but the judge reined him in with another warning. "Be careful what you say!"

With the judge's barb, and the fact that even he could tell that he was fast running out of rope, he gave up on the approach he was about to take and instead asked whether she'd been paid to tell the court this story.

The girl shook her head. "Oh no sir, the ladies didn't offer me no more than a sit down for a bit, 'cause they said I looked like I were workin' too hard!"

That, and the worried look she shot at the manager of her hotel, drew a few chuckles from the audience, and Waterman's lawyer gave up on her.

With that, the judge asked him whether he was done with making unfounded claims about Mrs Waterman's infidelity. He obviously struggled with giving up on what they'd been sure was their strongest argument, but it was apparent even to him that they'd lost on that point, so he said. "Yes, your honour."

The judge nodded and turned to Kathleen's lawyers, asking what they had to present.

This was where things got saucy, and quite interesting, as they called a steady stream of women (and men) to testify as to just what Alan Waterman had been getting up to for some time now, and about how much money he had been throwing about. Waterman's lawyer didn't pick up on the money issue at all, and gave up trying to discredit the testimonies after the first dozen or so, eventually having to concede that any infidelity within the Waterman marriage had obviously been on the part of Mr Waterman, rather than Mrs Waterman.

With all of his 'best' arguments shattered, he went for the last straw that he thought he had, the exceedingly suspicious way that Mrs Waterman was hiding the location of his daughter (hastily amending that to 'stepdaughter' when he saw that Kathleen's lawyers about to jump on that) from Mr Waterman. He turned with a smirk to her lawyers then but was disconcerted by the wolfish grins that they both sported at that point, belatedly realising that he may well have played right into their hands.

Indeed he had, because this gave them the opportunity to bring up the reasons _why_ Alexandra had been hidden away in an out of state boarding school, which were primarily to protect her from the aggressive and suspicious actions of Alan Waterman.

They opened with the statement that Mrs Waterman and the other parties would take the stand if required, but they had provided depositions to be read out, in hope that Mrs Waterman's upset could be kept to a minimum.

Waterman's lawyer broke in at that point. "What about the daughter, we need to question her!"

For the first time in the proceedings, Kathleen's lawyers broke courtroom protocol as one of them addressed Waterman's lawyer directly, asking "Why?" abruptly.

Waterman's lawyer started stammering that they needed her to corroborate the stories presented, then turned to the judge. "Your honour, we have a right to call any witnesses pertinent to our case, and Mr Waterman's daughter, stepdaughter (he amended when the other lawyer went to speak again) was present for many of these events, so we need her to tell the court what she heard."

The judge looked at him as though he was something he'd just scraped off the bottom of his shoe.

"What, specifically, do you hope to get from this witness that none of the other witnesses can provide? Be very careful here counsellor, I'm going to need to have a damned good reason to drag a child into something like this, and if I find that it was just a ruse on you and your client's part, I'll throw the both of you in jail!"

"She was present at discussions between my client and other parties and we're more likely to get an answer out of her."

"So you're telling me that you want me to order a child to be brought into the court to testify about things that a child should have never have been involved with at all, because you believe that you have a better chance of breaking her and making her say what you want than you do the adults involved?"

"Ye.. No your honour, we need her to tell us what happened."

"Request denied! You'll just have to try and best the adults involved if you want to win here."

"Bu.."

"Denied! Now, can we proceed with the case, or would you rather that I just have the two of you thrown in jail?"

Waterman's lawyer mumbled "Yes, your honour" and the judge motioned for Kathleen's lawyers to proceed.

Kathleen's lawyer said "Thank you, your honour" and moved on to the depositions, starting with the fact that Colonel Casey had been quite unhappy to learn that his daughter's 'education', if it was to be called that, had devolved to nothing more than deportment lessons in what was commonly accepted to be a second rate deportment school, citing the 'school' (which had to be looked up because it was just one of the multitude of cheap, inconsequential institutions in New York). He also pointed out that Alexandra had been forced to leave her previous school, which had quite a good education reputation, due to Mr Waterman's failure to pay her school fees.

They offered a deposition from her previous school's principal to that effect, one which also included a report of what a happy and promising student Alexandra had been at the school. The judge read the deposition, taking note of what school it was (indeed, it was one of the better schools in New York), and shot a disapproving look at Waterman, motioning for Kathleen's lawyers to go on.

They explained that due to Colonel Casey concerns for his daughter's prospects and future, he had arranged for Mrs Waterman and his daughter to come to the law firm of Tolbert, Ives and Jager the next day to make arrangements to ensure that his daughter had the options that he believed she deserved in her future by enabling her to get the education she needed to be able to go on to earn a degree, such as Colonel Barton's sister had done, if that was her choice.

Waterman's lawyer scoffed loudly at that, interrupting him. "The opportunity for her to earn a degree in poetry or some such frippery is hardly reason to interfere with the sanctity of marriage!"

The lawyer that he'd interrupted broke protocol again to snap back at him. "Perhaps not, but Missus Dent's degree just so happens to be in medicine, and I believe that most people would agree that we certainly do need more qualified doctors!"

He turned back to the judge. "If I may proceed your honour?"

The judge nodded. "Please do!", quelling Waterman's lawyer with a glare.

"When Missus Waterman and her daughter arrived at the offices of Tolbert, Ives and Jager the next morning, however, Mister Waterman had accompanied them, reportedly having insisted that he would be the one who managed any money that was allocated to his stepdaughter."

"I am told that Colonel Casey was quite upset about this, and for this reason the law firm assigned one of their lawyers to keep Mister Waterman occupied while they met with Colonel Casey, Missus Waterman and Miss Coburn to make the necessary arrangements to get Miss Coburn into a good boarding school."

"Colonel Casey made arrangements to pay all fees associated with his daughter's education and board at this school in an attempt to ensure that there would be no recurrence of her being removed from the school due to lack of payment."

"After all the arrangements to get Miss Coburn into the school had been made, she and her mother met Mister Waterman in the front office and Mister Waterman started an altercation, demanding to see the paperwork for the fund that had been set up for Alexandra. When Colonel Casey informed him that there was no fund involved, he was merely paying for his daughter's education, Mr Waterman reportedly said 'I control the money for this family, and I demand to see the paperwork on whatever fund is being set up for Alexandra', the situation reportedly got quite tense at this point."

The lawyer looked up from what he was reading to the judge, holding some paperwork up. "We have sworn affidavits from a number of the lawyers and law clerks present as to what happened that day your honour."

The judge held out his hand and the lawyer handed the affidavits to the Clerk of The Court, going on when the judge signalled him to.

"Colonel Casey admits to getting angry at that point and furthermore that he may have appeared threatening when he repeated to Mister Waterman that there was no fund involved and that he was paying for his daughter to go to a good school, adding that he and Missus Waterman were taking her up to enrol her the next day. He does admit to saying 'If you try to interfere with us taking our daughter off to school tomorrow, or interfere with my daughter in _ANY_ way, there won't be enough pieces left of you for anyone to find'. He reportedly added that if any harm came to Missus Waterman, whosoever caused it would answer to him."

"Missus Waterman and her daughter had slipped out while Colonel Casey was talking to Mister Waterman, and were in the process of supervising the packing of Miss Coburn's trunks to go off to school when Mister Waterman arrived at the Waterman residence. We were told that he became quite aggressive when he was demanding to know where Miss Coburn was going, and as this was causing considerable concern in Missus Waterman's mind as to his intentions, she evaded his questions."

He held up more paperwork. "We have sworn affidavits from the household staff present as to what they heard your honour."

The judge again held out his hand, motioning him to continue when the affidavits were handed to the Clerk of The Court.

"Missus Waterman and her daughter were both upset and concerned about Mister Waterman's behaviour, so Missus Waterman slept with Alexandra that night, with the door locked to keep him out. Mister Waterman was reportedly banging on the door and demanding that they let him in for a while before he gave up and went away. In the morning, Mister Waterman slept in late, as is his wont apparently, so he had not yet woken when they left to take Miss Coburn to her new school."

"While they were away, Missus Waterman recounted what had happened to Colonel Casey and his associates, and as she was concerned about these occurrences and how they may effect her daughter, she also requested assistance in dealing with the situation. This was reportedly why the trip was extended to an overnight absence, as she was having discussions with lawyers from Tolbert, Ives and Jager about what options were available to her under the circumstances."

"Upon their return, the Barton party went to the Waterman residence with Missus Waterman to provide support and make it clear that Miss Coburn was happy at her new school, but Mister Waterman kept demanding to know where Alexandra was. Eventually Colonel Casey told him that only her parents were allowed to contact her, and he'd be looking for a good reason as to why anyone else was trying to contact her."

"Missus Waterman had been made quite uncomfortable and afraid by Mister Waterman's behaviour, and for this reason has been avoiding him since then, choosing to sleep alone in her daughter's room since she returned from enrolling her in school. We were engaged via the firm of Tolbert, Ives and Jager to handle Missus Waterman's divorce suit, and that is the story up to this point your honour."

The judge nodded, and turning to Waterman's lawyer, asking "What do you have to say on the matter?"

Over the course of the reading of the depositions, Waterman's lawyer had interrupted and called Kathleen and Alan Waterman to the stand on numerous occasions, attempting to distort or distract from the issues being raised (being bested at every turn by Kathleen's lawyers of course), but at this point he just started to waffle aimlessly, so the judge cut him off, turning to Waterman.

"What, exactly, was the reason for your repeated attempts to ascertain the whereabouts of Alexandra Coburn?"

Waterman looked at his lawyer, who motioned to him to answer the judge. "I was concerned about her being abandoned like that, away from everyone that she knew, so I wanted to see her to make sure that she was happy there."

The judge snorted and held up the deposition from the Principal of her previous school. "That story doesn't jibe with what this says, nor what we've heard here today."

He turned to Kathleen's lawyers. "Do we have any reports of how Miss Coburn is doing at her new school?"

The lawyer replied "Yes, your honour." and offered a bundle of affidavits from staff and students at the school (as well as one from Kathleen after she'd visited Alex and one from Alex herself), and copies of the telegrams that the school was still sending every two or three days, reporting on how she was doing.

The Clerk of The Court collected them and delivered them to the judge, who read through them, raising an eyebrow when he saw that she was at Miss Porter's. Obviously her parents _did_ have a commitment to giving her the best chances that they could, and the constant telegrams they were getting showed that they were certainly concerned about knowing how happy she was there. He also mused that someone must have had considerable influence to be able to get the girl into Miss Porter's, but if their law firm was Tolbert, Ives and Jager, they certainly had that! Anyone competent knew about the type of people that that firm handled. When he'd read through what had been provided, he looked up at Waterman. "You can rest assured that your stepdaughter is being well looked after and is, by her own account, quite happy where she is."

Waterman held out his hand. "I'd like to see those reports!"

The judge's expression went hard as he replied. "No, that will most certainly _NOT_ be happening!", putting the bundle aside before looking back at Waterman.

"We have heard quite a number of accounts in regard to events involving you, your wife and Alexandra Coburn here today, is the story that has been presented largely accurate to your recollection?"

"What? No!"

The judge held up a sheaf of affidavits in his hand. "Are you sure about that? Because they match what I've read here quite well. Need I remind you what will happen to you if you're found to have been lying to the court? Again, is what we've heard today largely accurate?"

"Well... Yes, by and large I suppose it's mostly accurate."

The judge affixed him with a baleful glare and he added a muttered "Your honour."

The judge picked up his gavel, bringing it down on the sounding block. "I find for the plaintiff, Missus Kathleen Ann Waterman. I therefore grant her the requested divorce from Mr Alan Theodore Waterman."

He looked at the lawyers "I presume that both sides have their submissions for the disposition of assets ready?"

Kathleen's lawyers said "Yes, your honour" and proffered the file that they had ready (with an added note on the front referring to the testimonies heard in regard to Waterman's rampant spending), the Clerk of the Court collected it and delivered it from the judge.

The Judge looked at Waterman's lawyer as he opened the file and started leafing through it. The man stammered. "As I said earlier your honour, we haven't had the opportunity to do a full accounting of the assets to determine Mister Waterman's entitlements."

There was no response from the judge, as his whole attention had by now been taken up with what he was reading in the file in front of him. Eventually he looked up and looked a question at Kathleen's lawyers, who nodded grimly. Only then did he look back at Waterman and his lawyer and start to ask what he'd said, but the Court Reporter was ready for that and read out the transcript to him. He nodded thanks to the Court Reporter.

Looking at Kathleen's lawyers, he held up the file and asked "Do you have another copy of this for them?"

They nodded, saying "Yes, your honour" and held it out, when the Clerk of The Court had collected it and delivered it to the opposing counsel's desk the Judge said.

"You have fifteen minutes to examine that and give me a sound, factual reason why I shouldn't order this enacted exactly as they have laid out. If you haven't convinced me otherwise in fifteen minutes I will be ordering this to be the final settlement of the matter."

The lawyer tried to argue but withered under the judge's glare, so he and Waterman then spent the next quarter hour desperately trying to find something in the file that they could use to argue against this.

After fifteen minutes the Judge picked up the gavel again and waited for them to look at him in defeat before he pounded it down on the sounding block. "The disposition of assets for the Waterman family will be carried out as detailed in the submission from the lawyers representing Mrs Kathleen Waterman!"

As soon as the Clerk of The Court had the court orders written out and delivered under the judge's signature, Sarah (or rather, Sam) pulled the trigger on the sale of the property Kathleen had inherited and most of the furniture, along with Kathleen's change of name 'back' to Coburn.

* * *

Kathleen had John and people from Tolbert, Ives and Jager (Sarah and Hattie couldn't be there in case anyone recognised them) with her to help explain things to the staff who were being let go, provide them with references and their severance pay and try to help find them new positions.

The only staff who would be going with her to Coburn House were Lou, Albert, and one of the young house maids, Eliza, a young Irish girl who was Albert and Lou's recommendation as the best of the girls. Kathleen and John talked to them like they had the others to avoid giving the game away. Albert knew where they were going, but Eliza wasn't told before they left New York in case anyone tried to force her to tell what she knew.

Like Lou, Albert Mason had risen to his position early due to his ability and personality. He'd been just twenty when Miss Martha had promoted him to be her butler (which raised questions as to whether Aunt Martha had really been as staid as she'd generally made out, given that she'd obviously been willing to buck tradition and take a chance on exceptional young people more than once). As with Lou, the only reason that he'd stayed on after Miss Martha died was to look out for Kathleen and Alex, because he hadn't trusted that Alan Waterman one bit.

Albert was lost at first when John asked him if he knew how to handle horses, carriages and the like?

"Horses? Yes Sir. I was managing Miss Martha's stables for her up until she passed, and she usually had me driving for her, but why is that important Sir?"

John smiled, "Because you'll have four lovely mares with riding and harness tack, a Landau and a Tilbury Gig to look after up in Farmington."

Kathleen turned to him in surprise. "Johnny, what are you talking about?"

"This was going to be a surprise, but you'll find out soon enough, Sarah and Chuck have a collection of nice mares. They decided that if Alex is going to be riding at Miss Porter's, she should have her own horse, and as the mares aren't getting enough attention on the farm where they're being looked after, they decided to send four of them up to Coburn house for your and Alexandra's use. The same saddler who's made all our saddles, Israel Landis, has made up special lightweight astride and aside saddles to the mares' measurements so they'll fit them properly. Given that you'll have your own horses there, it made sense for you to have your own carriages too, so we commissioned a custom lightweight Sefton Landau for occasions when you're being driven, as well as a nice little hooded Tilbury Gig that you can drive yourselves to be built for you. They're all waiting up there at the house now with a temporary caretaker looking after them. We've checked him out, and he'll be available to you for other jobs if you need him by the way."

When he'd finished he added. "Nyx is a lovely girl, magnificent, but I wouldn't let Alex ride her, she's a bit wild. She's the mother of Diablo, Bruja and Demonio, which are Chuck's, Sarah's and my mules, among others, and their names are a reflection of the nature they got from her."

She couldn't hold her chuckle at that in, and he smiled.

Meeting Albert brought something else to John's attention, the fact that he had a mechanical leg. Kathleen wasn't impressed when the two men she was sure that she could rely on to help her through this suddenly disappeared. Johnny returned over half an hour later without Albert, and wouldn't offer any explanation other than. "There's something he needs to get done before he leaves New York."

When Albert returned a couple of hours later, he would only say that he'd been sworn to secrecy before he bustled off to catch up on the duties that he'd been neglecting. He disappeared a few more times over the next week, but then the secret was revealed, because he came back moving far more easily than he'd done since he came back from the war without his leg. Aunt Martha had spent a considerable amount to commission a mechanical leg to be made for him, but it had never worked very well. It was heavy and locked up sometimes, and even when it didn't the movement never seemed natural or easy.

This new leg he obviously had now though, he was a little unsteady on it as if he was learning to walk again but it seemed as though he hardly noticed the weight and even now he was walking far more normally than he ever had with the other leg. As she didn't want to embarrass Albert, she grabbed Johnny and dragged him off to get an explanation. He seemed in quite a good mood and was willing to offer up the information now.

"It's Chuck, he's a marvel with anything mechanical. Apparently he made a mechanical leg for his father when he was eleven that worked better than anything anyone else could make, as well as one for the ranking Engineer in his regiment in the war, and he just kept improving from then on. He made better legs for his father after he came back from the war, and he made one for Tom's father last year. He's making them out of aluminium mixed with other metals to make it harder now, because they're a third the weight of steel and brass legs. When I saw Albert I knew he needed a better leg if he is to be able protect you and Alex properly, so I took him to see Chuck, and he finished the leg today."

He turned to look at her. "I didn't want to say anything until we knew that Chuck could make a leg for him, but I think it's obvious that the new leg's working for him."

Kathleen scowled at him. "Yes, I haven't seen him moving so well since he lost his leg in the war, but you could have told me instead of leaving me wondering and swearing poor Albert to secrecy!"

* * *

It took them a week and a half, but they found good placements for most of the rest of the household staff and packed up the house, shipping what furniture etc that they were taking with them up to the new house as it was ready. Kathleen, Albert, Lou and Eliza were the last to leave.

Waterman (presumably) still had people watching the house to find out where they were going to, but the Pinkertons who were still guarding Kathleen took the watchers out of action so they knew no more than what they had before, that it was somewhere north of New York.

When they reached the house, Albert and Eliza were quite impressed, and while they were occupied, looking about the house, Kathleen turned to John and said. "Johnny, show me our girls", so he led her out to the stables.

They'd had the stables redone and there was plenty of room for their needs, given that they had good sized stalls for the four horses, even with two stalls having been removed to make room to store the Tilbury Gig and a third having been converted into a neat little tack room. The Landau resided in the single carriage bay beside the stables.

Kathleen's first thought was to check out their horses though, and she agreed with everyone else, they certainly were lovely girls. Being raised in Army camps by a cavalry father had given Kathleen a solid grounding in horses and their handling, and she'd always loved them.

She'd been quite put out when Alan had sold off the horses and carriages after her Aunt Martha died, but he wouldn't be swayed (once he decided something, that was it!), so she'd been without horses for over five years now, and seeing the mares there made her realise just how much she'd missed having horses in her life.

That was why, after saying hello to them, she'd turned to John and asked. "So, Johnny, can _you_ still harness and drive the Landau?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because I think it's time our daughter saw her new home, don't you?"

He smiled and nodded, heading over to the little tack room to get the harnesses. While he dug out everything that they needed, Kathleen slipped halters onto Selene and Hecate and led them outside to wait for Johnny to open the doors of the carriage bay.

When he opened the carriage bay doors, the mares pricked up their ears and looked around, as they remembered the Landau from the last time people were here. They stood quietly while he harnessed them and hitched them to the Landau, and were again content to stand when he'd led them forward, drawing the Landau out of the carriage bay.

Kathleen stayed to hold them there while Johnny closed up the carriage bay, then he took over holding them while she went inside to get Albert. He hadn't seen Alex's school yet, nor had he seen her since they brought her to the school and he had always had a soft spot for Alex, and she him.

When they came outside though, they stopped at the sight of the Landau. Kathleen had seen parts of it before, but she hadn't had the opportunity to stand back and look at it before this, she'd just seen the front when it was in the carriage bay, and when she'd been holding the mares.

The Landau had the more elegant, as well as lighter, Sefton (or canoe) body. Part of the weight savings were from making it very close coupled so that the body was shorter, neater and more compact than many landaus. The bodywork, wheels and metalwork were painted a sparkling black (which was well matched to Selene and Hecate's colouring) with shining silver trim, the seats and interior panelling were silver grey leather, while the leather tops and harnesses were black. The only flash of colour on the Landau was the Coburn family crest that adorned the axle cap on each wheel. It was very elegant and lovely.

After handing Kathleen up into the carriage, John joined Albert up on the driver's seat and they set off on the rather short drive to Miss Porter's school. John kept an eye on Albert, but while he was a little rusty at first, by the time they'd reached Miss Porter's he was doing fine.

As they pulled up to the front doors of Miss Porter's they could see many girls' faces in the windows, so they would not be popular with Miss Porter for interrupting the girls' classes. Many of these girls came from the richest families in America, so they'd be used to grand carriages, but obviously the same thing had caught their eyes as had Kathleen's, just what a pretty picture the Landau made with the girls out front.

They didn't have time to go to the office to ask if they could see Alexandra because she'd come running out the front door before they'd even reached it. She went first to her mother, of course, but John was a little miffed when he lost out to 'Uncle Albert' for the next hug.

He tried to push the feeling down, as he could understand to a degree. After all, Albert had been part of her life pretty much since she was a babe, and she hadn't seen him in months now, whereas she'd seen _him_ just over two weeks before, but it still hurt a little. That hurt abated when she came to him immediately after and his hug was much longer, but when she called him "Father", it felt awkward to both of them.

Kathleen felt this as well and came over to them, stroking Alex's hair as she asked. "Do you think, perhaps, that you could be comfortable with calling your father Papa?"

Alex looked at her father and a smile broke out on her face as they nodded in unison and she said. "Papa, yes, I like Papa!"

That got her another hug from John as he sent Kathleen a look of thanks.

With that sorted, she stepped back to take another admiring look at the Landau and the horses, asking "Who's lovely carriage is this Mama?", whipping her head around to stare at her mother when Kathleen answered. "Apparently it's our's Sweetie".

" _Really_?" Kathleen nodded and waved her hand at John, saying. "Your father and his friends apparently believed that we needed to get properly set up with our new house, so they picked out the horses and had the carriages built for us."

The look that Alex turned on her father then was an alarming combination of both of her parents' angry looks. "Papa! You told me that you were only here for Auntie Ellie and Uncle Andy's wedding!" he looked away as he mumbled. "Well, we didn't want to get your hopes up until we were sure that all that Waterman business was behind us."

She looked balefully at him for another thirty seconds before something suddenly clicked. Looking at her mother, she said. "So these lovely horses are _our's_ then?" (She'd inherited her mother's, well both her parent's, love of horses and that had been awoken in her when she started riding at the school).

Her mother smiled. "Yes, your Papa can tell you their names."

That got a smile from John as he went to the mare closest to them, he gave her a scratch on the nose as he said "This is Selene, and her sister there is Hecate. They have two more cousins back at the house, Nyx and Nox."

Alex came up to introduce herself to the horses, and as she did so asked her father. "Can they be ridden?"

He nodded. "Yes, that's what they were originally being brought up here for, so you and your mother can ride, especially as you're doing riding for school now, but when we thought about it we decided that it made sense for you to have carriages as well, so we got this and a Tilbury gig made up specially to suit the girls here."

Alex frowned as she said to her mother. "I didn't know you could ride Mama?"

Her mother smiled at her. "Have you forgotten where you were born White Bird? I grew up in Army camps all over the frontier, and your Grandfather was a cavalry officer, just like your father, so I pretty much grew up on a horse. It was only the last five years that I've been away from horses, and that period is now in our past, thanks to your father and his friends."

A troubled look passed over Alex's face as she thought about what her mother meant by that last, but she shook it off as she asked. "Where is your new house Mama?"

That brought the smile back to Kathleen's face. " _OUR_ new house Sweetie, that is what we came for actually, wait here with your Papa while I go ask Miss Porter's permission to take you out of the school for a short while."

Alex was perplexed but she nodded and said. "Yes mama."

Kathleen came back fifteen minutes later and nodded with a smile when John looked a question at her. John handed her and Alex up into the carriage and then climbed in after them, as Albert was quite comfortable with driving the pair now.

When the Landau turned into a drive only a short distance down the street, Alex looked a question at her mother, but Kathleen just smiled without saying a word. When they pulled up at the stables, John helped the ladies out of the carriage then stayed to help Albert unharness and tend to the horses and put them and the landau away while Kathleen took Alex in to see Lou and show her their new home, Coburn House.

After she'd shown Alex the house, and especially her room, Kathleen walked her back to the school (as it was just down the street). They all knew that she'd have trouble concentrating on her classes the rest of the day, but they'd gotten her into Miss Porter's so she could get a good education, and she needed to learn to concentrate if she was going to do that.

While Alex was in class that afternoon, Kathleen had Eliza pack up her things in the dormitory, and John and Albert were shuttling her trunks back to the house on a hand cart that they'd borrowed from the school as they were ready. It was all done by the time that she finished class, and John and Kathleen went down to the school to walk her home.

* * *

It had been agreed that this would generally be one of Albert's duties, walking Alex to and from school, and to that end John had ensured that Albert had a working familiarity with weapons, because whenever he was escorting Alex, he'd be carrying a gun. John had told Albert when they were getting his new leg made that he needed him in good shape to protect Alex and Kathleen, and the men bonded when Albert told him that he would do that no matter what.

One of the things that had been put together for the house was weapons for them to defend themselves with, because between Waterman and the enemies that John and the team had, there would always be a possibility that someone would come after them. Chuck had made up three shotgun carbines in 12 Gauge with 20 inch barrels for them (These were based off the rifle frame and cylinder and carried seven 12 gauge rounds in the cylinder and one in the centre. When he was making up the rifle prototype, he remembered their car being breaching in the train ambush and what he was thinking about the carbine the night after his parents were killed. With that in mind, he designed and made up a shotgun version of the carbine using the larger rifle cylinder. They were a devastating weapon for close fighting.), along with half a dozen .46 Rimfire sixguns, a dozen .38 Rimfire revolvers and a dozen .38 derringers. John had brought them (and a good supply of ammunition) up with him when they came to settle Kathleen and Alex into the house.

One shotgun would normally reside in Kathleen's closet (she'd learned to handle firearms as well as horses when she was growing up in Army camps), along with a .46 revolver in her bedside drawer, and she generally carried a .38 revolver or derringer. Once she'd been trained to handle them safely, Alex would also have a .38 revolver in her bedside drawer and carry another revolver or derringer with her. Albert would have another shotgun in his closet (with the spare leg Chuck made for him), one of the .46 revolvers in his bedside drawer and would normally be carrying another .46 or .38 revolver (always when he was escorting Alex). Lou had a .38 revolver in her bedside drawer and another one stashed in the kitchen. Eliza would also have a .38 revolver in her bedside drawer once she'd been trained to use it. The last shotgun and the rest of the revolvers and derringers would be stashed about the house in hidey-holes where they could get them if they needed them. They'll all been admonished that these guns were never to be shown to anyone else or left where others could get them.

They didn't like having to consider the need for violence, but they'd all had enough of it in their lives to accept it as a reality. Kathleen had lost her father to the Indians, had seen all of her escort killed when she was captured by them and had believed that she'd lost Johnny to them as well, there was also the worry that Alan Waterman was a petty man who would lash out at her if he had a chance to. Albert had been in the war (acquitting himself quite well up until he lost his leg according to the reports), and had protected Miss Martha and Miss Kathleen from attackers more than once. Alex had heard enough to have an idea of what sort of life her father and his friends were leading and had seen Alan Waterman being violent towards her mother, while Lou had seen more violence than she liked before she came to Miss Martha's, as had Eliza. They understood the need to be able to defend themselves and accepted why their house held what most would consider to be a small armoury. None of them wanted to use these weapons, but they felt a little more comfortable knowing that they had them if they needed them.

* * *

Albert, Lou and Eliza were shocked when they saw the new quarters built for them above the stables, because not even Albert's quarters had been anything like this nice at Miss Martha's. It also took a bit of adjustment for them to get used to them all sitting down to dinner or whatever together and being treated as equals in the house unless other people were there, as that just wasn't done anywhere they'd been before.

When Albert saw the livery he was expected to wear on formal occasions, he argued that it was _too_ formal, as he had to wear a full silver grey or black morning suit (with matching top hats, and chesterfield coats to wear over the suits in cold or inclement weather) for his coachman's livery, and the morning suits or a white tie ensemble for his butler's livery if they were entertaining, all festooned with solid silver buttons bearing the Coburn heraldic animal, the cockerel.

He had been hurt until he understood that she hadn't been mocking him when Alex told him how handsome he looked, driving the Landau in his morning suit, as he doted on on her. Alex was being totally sincere though, because he _did_ look very handsome in the silver grey morning suit that he was wearing. Truth be told, Albert cut a fine figure in all his formal suits, because at six feet tall he was taller than most men and with his slim build he wore his suits very well, so it was quite common for him to look finer than the 'important' people when he was dressed up.

Of course, most of the time he wore much more normal (and comfortable) clothes, because Kathleen only required them to wear the livery for formal occasions. Having Alex's school friends over didn't qualify as that so their normal house rules applied when they came over, and it had taken rather an adjustment on the part of some of the girls to learn how they were expected to behave in this household.

Any girl being rude to one of the staff or ordering them about was told to leave, and she wasn't allowed to return until she was prepared to apologise to the person concerned. If Kathleen didn't deem her apology satisfactory she would be sent away again, and may not get another chance.

Albert, as the butler, was to be addressed as Mr Mason. Lou, as the cook and housekeeper, was Mrs Palone. As the maid, it was acceptable to address Eliza by her given name. In all circumstances however, if the girls wanted something they were to request it politely, no matter who they were talking to, and failure to do so was another reason to be told to leave.

When Kathleen was requested to come and talk to Miss Porter a short while after she'd begun imposing these house rules on the girls coming to their house, she was expecting to have to defend her position. This was something which she was quite prepared to do, but instead Miss Porter had complimented her and asked her to share what she'd done.

Miss Porter had confirmed that yes, she'd had complaints from some parents who's daughters had been banned from Kathleen's house because they would not abide by her house rules, but she'd been far more impressed by the improvement in the manners of the other girls. Kathleen's rules had had girls who's behaviour had been barely acceptable behaving as proper young ladies should in an amazingly short time, and Miss Porter was hoping that she'd be willing to share what she'd done to achieve that. Once that had been clarified, it had become a quite pleasant conversation.

It hadn't taken Alex very long at all to settle into the changes that came with living at home with her mother while she was going to Miss Porter's. Now, on the days when they had riding, she'd be walked home by Albert and get changed into her riding habit. Then she'd go out and saddle up one of the mares (generally Selene, as she was the quietest and the one she was told she should use), as Sarah and her parents insisted that she do this herself to ensure that the saddle was sitting comfortably on the horse, she'd then use the stepped mounting block that had been built outside the stables to mount and ride back to school.

Sarah, Chuck and others had also come up to help get Kathleen and Alex settled into their new home, and the first time Sarah saw Alex mount the mare and begin to ride off to school, she had stopped her to ask what training she'd had, then gave her a few pointers which brought about an immediate improvement in her riding. Once Alex had left, Sarah had asked Kathleen's permission to teach Alex how to ride properly, and Ellie piped up to say that Sarah was a wonderful teacher, with Hattie, Adele and Mei agreeing. Kathleen was quite happy to have Sarah teach Alex, and was included in those lessons at her request. John had also given Albert riding lessons so he could escort Alex on one of the other mares, as he'd never been taught to ride properly.

Sarah spent their time there eradicating the bad riding habits that Alex (and Kathleen) had been taught and teaching them how to ride side saddle properly (and quietly, astride as well). By the time they left, Alex was the best rider at the school. The fact that Selene and the side saddles that they'd had made for them were much better than what the school had helped as well.

Sarah and John (and Chuck, Tom, Hank, Hattie, Mei and Albert, she certainly had no shortage of teachers) had also taught Alex (and Kathleen) to drive the girls in harness, but even though she'd learned how to drive the girls as a pair, and they'd let her drive if one of them was with her, Alex was never allowed to take the Landau out on her own.

Once she'd proven to them that she would be sensible and not put herself, the horse or anyone else at risk however, she was allowed to take the Tilbury (which had been finished in the same elegant livery as the Landau) out by herself, but only if she had good reason to do so. She was only allowed to drive the Tilbury using the single hitch of course. Given that driving it with the tandem hitch had been a little too exciting for Albert or Kathleen, they'd decided that that was entirely too fast a ride for a girl like Alex to take out. Just watching Sarah and Hattie giving the girls their heads with the tandem hitch had been enough to frighten Kathleen and John (not to mention Chuck and Tom), as they had certainly confirmed that it was a _FAST_ rig.

Of course, the fact that John and the rest of the team had to go back to the west coast soon after they were settled into the house put a little of a damper on their happy times, but they promised to keep in contact via telegram and mail all the time, and any time they came to the east coast now they made sure to visit Farmington. Sometimes it was for a day, sometimes a week, but they'd always visit.


	5. History and Blackmail

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

They left Farmington and headed for Washington, on their way west, and as soon as they arrived in Washington they went out to General Cranston's farm to see their mules to check their condition, and because they'd missed them.

They were actually in Washington for nearly a week, inducting Captain Noble and his men into the Platoon, catching up on the latest information from Uncle Sam and meeting with him to ensure that everybody was in agreement with the plans that were being made.

Rick and his men spent a fair bit of that time out at Cranston Farm, getting used to riding mules like theirs (big, headstrong and spirited) and generally brushing up on their riding skills, because as Marines they weren't used to days in the saddle. Tom assigned Weed and a few more of the boys to teach them what they needed to know, about riding and handling the mules and using the unique weapons that Chuck had created for the group.

With the closer fighting conditions that the Marines had been used to, Rick and his men taken to the shotgun carbines as soon as they saw them. Listening to their reasoning for this and thinking back to why he had created them in the first place, Chuck had made up another one and a half dozen of them to take back to California while they were in New York. He was coming to realise that there were unforeseen advantages in bringing the best of the Marines into the Platoon. He had also made up a pair of the butterfly swords that Mei was used to for her and more of the cutlasses and knives in Damascus steel, using the old knowledge that had been lost to everyone else.

As they were completing their tasks in Washington, they ordered the Pullman's Hotel car and horse cars to take them back to the west coast.

Even with the two extra couples, the sleeping arrangements in the Pullman car hadn't really changed, as the two new couples just swapped who they shared their drawing rooms with while Sarah and Chuck shared the third with Mei and Adele, John, Rick and Hank took the fourth and the other men remained in the open sections. Even with the four three men there, with the troopers on guard none of them needed to share bunks.

They had little to do on this trip west, other than look after the mules and bring the new men up to speed, so now that the weather had warmed up again most of them were spending much of the time sitting up on the roofs of the horse cars watching the scenery again.

Just as they had the last time they took the mules to California, Sarah and Chuck, Ellie and Andy and Hattie and Tom went back to the horse cars just before they reached the summit tunnels, to stay there with the mules and keep them calm as they went through the tunnels. Having experienced this before though, the mules were more settled than they'd been the last time. At least, with the late spring weather, there was no difficulty in returning to the Hotel car once they'd exited the tunnels this time.

The shipping arrangements from San Francisco to Los Angeles had been made before they'd left Washington, so they went straight to the docks and left Ben there with a detail of troopers and Mei (as she had to stay out of sight in San Francisco) to watch over the mules and their luggage until they could be loaded onto the steamer (and then stay with them on the steamer) while the others did some shopping.

The passage down the coast to Los Angeles on the steamer was uneventful, and when they docked in Los Angeles, Bill was there waiting for them. He hustled them and their luggage onto the train, while Ben and the troopers saddled their mules, to ride them back to Los Angeles while they led the others. Rick's three sergeants went with them.

Troopers were waiting at the station with a wagon when they arrived, so they quickly loaded their luggage and spare saddles onto the wagon to be taken to Al's stable while the team, along with Bill and the rest of the party, went for a stroll to the Two Widows.

* * *

When they reached the Two Widows, Jane and Bolonia descended on the new couples, berating them for not telling them that they were getting married, but making sure they knew how happy that they were for them.

The women, of course, wanted all the details about the weddings, but they gave brief descriptions of the ceremonies hoping that the photographs would be enough to to tell the story.

Knowing what it was going to be like when they got back (and to save the memories), they'd had photographers at both weddings to record many images of the events. They'd also had a photographer up in Connecticut get pictures of Kathleen and Alex, Miss Porter's school, Coburn House, Kathleen and Alex with Albert, Lou and Eliza in their house livery standing in front of Coburn House. One lovely picture of Kathleen and Alex in the Landau with all four girls hitched up out front and Albert looking handsome in his coachman's livery up on the driver's seat, Kathleen, Alex and Sarah mounted on the girls, Alex in the Tilbury with Nox hitched up, Kathleen in the Tilbury with two of the girls in the tandem hitch etc.

They had a wealth of pictures to keep Jane and Bolonia (and the rest of the girls of the Two Widows) occupied for a while, and that gave the rest of them time to hoe into the piles of wonderful food that Bolonia had put in front of them (she'd had the food ready when they walked into the Two Widows).

Al and Mike were also there, and Al whistled when he saw the picture of the Tilbury with the girls in the tandem hitch. Holding the picture up, he said. "This looks like a fast rig?"

Mike nabbed the picture off of him to see it as John answered "Oh yeah, it's fast all right! And of course, these two" (hooking his thumb over his shoulder at Sarah and Hattie) had to prove it for themselves!"

Mike looked hungry as he asked. "How fast?"

When Hattie grinned and said "Too fast for a fast rider at the gallop to keep up!" he looked at John in disbelief, but John nodded grimly. At that both he and Al said "Damn!" in unison.

As soon as they'd eaten, Ellie and Hattie had to start answering all of Jane and Bolonia's questions about their weddings, and they dragged Andy and Tom in as well.

Once they were done with the newlyweds though, it was John's turn, and he had to fill them in on the story of the divorce proceedings and how Kathleen and Alex were doing up in Connecticut.

Sarah, Chuck and the others helped recount the story, but John was the one who was in their sights.

The others had a laugh about what Albert's reaction had been when he found out that Kathleen wasn't the one who'd been responsible for the livery that he and the other staff had to wear (and the carriage livery), it was Hattie, Andy and John, with input from Chuck. Hattie, Andy, and John as they found, were the ones in the group who had been the most versed in the heraldic standards of high society, and of course Chuck had several millennia of knowledge on the subject.

So, when they were choosing how to paint the carriages when they were being built, that discussion had quickly expanded into the design of the full livery for this branch of the family Coburn, and the image that they wanted to project for them. That was why they'd gone with the understated elegance of black and silver, with minimal colour flashes restricted to subtle displays of the Coburn family crest. It had been Hattie who'd suggested the full formal suits for Albert, but the others had heartily agreed, keeping with the silver and black colour scheme, so his coachman's and butler's livery was mainly silver grey with black highlights, or black, with silver highlights, adding the cockerel on the silver buttons to denote the house, and the white shirts and collars to break up the silver and black. Lou and Eliza's livery kept to the same colour scheme as Albert's 'house' livery, predominantly silver or black with the same silver buttons and white apron, collar, headpiece etc. Only Albert seemed to mind at all, and at that he didn't disagree that it looked very nice, he just felt that it was too much.

To avoid questions that she didn't want to answer, Hattie started telling them how Kathleen and her house rules were already scandalising Connecticut society because she was ordering people to leave her house if they'd said anything that she found unacceptable to or about the staff, and especially Alex. The times that she'd had Alfred bodily eject men who'd laid hands on Eliza were still being talked about, as was the way she'd lost Alex's father to a Chinese Princess. That last caught people's attention, and they demanded that she tell this story, so she prevailed upon Jane to break out a few bottles of tequila as she started the story.

"It came out of Alex getting in trouble at Miss Porter's for fighting with another girl when the little flossy called her mother a liar and a trollop, citing that as her father obviously wasn't dead her mother couldn't be a widow so she'd obviously just made up that story to cover up her shame, because she was a loose woman who'd gotten herself in trouble when she was unwed. Kathleen had banned the little flossy from their house for refusing to apologise to Eliza after she'd said something unacceptable to her so she was trying to get back at them. Miss Porter didn't hold fighting as acceptable behaviour for young ladies, and in truth had had doubts about that story herself, seeing as Johnny had been introduced to her as Alex's father, so she was talking about expelling Alex."

Hattie paused to pour and down another drink before continuing. "This happened while we were there, so we all went to meet with Miss Porter and explain the situation, Kathleen, Johnny, Chuck, Sarah, Ellie, Andy, Tommy, Mei and I. Now you need to understand why it was us who went, and why we made sure that everyone there was properly introduced to Miss Porter. Kathleen and Johnny, well they were Alex's parents of course, but Kathleen's mother's family had a good name in New York and Johnny was also (as Alex Coburn) a West Point graduate who was made a Brevet Colonel for what he did in the war, and a United States Marshal. Chuck was the Hero of Boston, a decorated war hero and Brevet Colonel with a good degree who is in charge of an important government operation. Sarah is Chuck's wife, a highly placed government agent, and the President's ward." (Jane jumped a little at hearing that last, but didn't say a word.)

"Andy is a respected officer in the Army, a West Point graduate and a member of one of the Connecticut's 'best' families, in fact his father is the First Lady's cousin. Ellie is Andy's wife, Chuck's sister and a doctor who graduated with honours to boot, just the sort of woman that Miss Porter looks up to. Tommy's another very respected Army Officer who acquitted himself well in the war, where he'd served with our war hero actually, a West Point graduate, and he comes from a good military family. His father is a Brevet Commodore and a decorated war hero like Chuck. I'm Tommy's wife and a government agent, and I come from a 'good' family who are big in New York as well. And Mei, well as reported in the New York dailies after Kathleen's divorce, Mei is a Chinese Princess!" Mei tried to interrupt at that point, but Hattie waved her off, reminding her that that was indeed how it had been reported in the dailies.

"Of course, Sarah and I couldn't use our Law degrees to impress her as they're in men's names, but we still had a lot of very impressive credentials between us! And we had something else as well, we had all the records that we'd put together for Kathleen's divorce case!" She paused for another drink and went on.

"We started with the part that Miss Porter had already been told, how Kathleen had been forced to go back to New York after her father was killed, because her family had thought that her marrying Johnny just before her father was killed by the Indians was nothing but a story that she'd made up to stay with him. She repeated how she'd been taken by the Indians on the way back east, how the women of the tribe had made her taboo when they discovered that she was carrying a baby (something that she hadn't known herself), and how she and the baby had been bought back by traders a couple of years later, only to be told that her husband had also been killed by the Indians."

"At that point we showed Miss Porter the letter confirming that the Nevada records showed that Kathleen McHugh had been married to Lieutenant Alexander Coburn in early fifty eight and the reports of her capture and recovery (saying that their marriage hadn't been common knowledge to explain why she had been reported as being Kathleen McHugh). We also showed her the excerpt of the Army report of how Captain Alexander Coburn had been shot off his horse and presumably killed in an Indian engagement in sixty, noting that for some reason his troop had never checked to see whether he was alive, not when he was shot _or_ before they pulled out and left the area just days later."

After another drink she went on. "Kathleen had already told Miss Porter how she and the baby come back to New York to live with her maiden aunt, and how a few years later she'd married Alan Waterman, but now she told her how he'd convinced her aunt to let them all stay there with her (I'm not sure what he told her to convince her, but I'm betting that it wasn't the truth, as the house he'd shown them had been repossessed by his creditors for non-payment of debts), and then proceeded to spend Kathleen's inheritance. She told her that that had been the way her marriage had continued until a couple of days before they'd enrolled Alex in her school, so the new story began at that point."

"Kathleen handed over to Johnny for that, and he explained to Miss Porter how he'd been repeatedly denied permission to mount any rescue attempts for Kathleen after she'd been taken, showing her the transcripts of the army records to prove that. He also told her how he'd looked for some sign of Kathleen in every Indian camp that he'd gone to for over a year, but had begun to give up hope of ever finding her alive. Then in sixty, he was shot off his horse in an Indian engagement and rolled down the hill into the brushes, but when he'd tried to climb out of the brushes, he saw that his troop had ridden off and left him. So he hid in the brushes with a bullet in his shoulder until all the Indians had left and then struggled to get back to his camp on foot, off his head with wound fever, only to find out when he finally got there that they'd packed up and left, without ever once trying to find him. He told her that he'd cursed God and man at that point, then set off, still on foot, in hope of reaching a town so that he could get back to the world that he knew."

"He then told her how he'd come across a dead prospector's camp, and after he'd given the man a good Christian burial (Miss Porter's a pious lady, she lapped that up) he decided that, given that to the world he was dead and forgotten and his wife and everything else that mattered to him were also dead, there was no point for Captain Alexander Coburn to exist any more, so he took on the dead prospector's name, took his horse and pack mule and went back to the world as John Casey to start a new life."

"Miss Porter was lapping this up, and up to this point it had all been nearly all the straight truth. Anyway, Johnny told her how, about six months after he got back to the world, the war had started and he'd joined up to fight (he didn't mention for which side and she didn't ask) and, glossing over what he'd done in the war, he told her that he'd been discharged from the Army as a Brevet Colonel at the end of the war and was immediately sworn in as United States Marshal John Casey, after which he'd done what he was called to do by the government for the next five and a half years."

Hattie stopped for another drink, only to realise that the bottle was empty so she waved the empty bottle at Jane, this story telling was thirsty work!

"Now this next part we wouldn't have told her, except that it had already been reported in the New York dailies because Kathleen's divorce was a sensation in New York, they'd all reported the stories of great adventures of our heroes and the dastardly deeds of Alan Waterman."

"He told how, towards the end of seventy, he'd been called to Washington, and the President himself had assigned him to work with a young war hero who had finished the war as a Brevet Colonel with the Medal of Honor, even though he was only twenty (waving at Chuck), and a young government agent who had a rather special connection to the President (waving at Sarah). These two had fallen in love and they were wed before the month was out."

"Enter our hero's sister, a brilliant and extraordinary woman who through great fortitude had earned her degree as a doctor with honours (waving at Ellie) and who had, along with him, just lost her parents because they were murdered in their own home. Furthermore, the young man who'd been courting her for years and had supposedly been about to marry her had abandoned her just when she needed him. As her brother was all she had left in the world at that point, she couldn't lose him too so she'd convinced him to take her along with them, and she was made a part of their team."

"Now, because the work this team was set to do was so important, two very highly regarded and promising officers (waving at Tom and Andy) were given a Platoon of the best troopers in the Army and assigned to assist and protect this team, and they started going all over the country doing things for the government that no-one else could. In Colorado, they saved another government agent (pointing to herself), and as she was fortunate enough to have known the President's ward, she was added onto the team too."

Hattie was well on her way to finishing the second bottle now, and Jane didn't know how she was still conscious, but if the tequila was going to keep this story going, she'd keep the tequila coming, it was riveting!

"Johnny told her how we kept on moving around the country, dealing with whatever problems the government had and then, when we were chasing something down in California, Marshal John Casey crashed head long into his past, because he ran into men who'd served with him in the Indian wars. These men remembered him as Captain Alex Coburn, who was supposed to have been killed twelve years earlier, and they forced his story out of him." She raised her glass to Al and Mike at that point.

"Johnny explained how he'd told them the story of what had happened to him, but they had news for him, too, because they told him that his wife hadn't died, she'd been recovered, unharmed, from the Indians and what's more, he had a daughter! He told her how we'd used all the connections that we had to try to locate his wife and daughter, but no-one could find anything about them, and from the other side of the country there wasn't much we could do."

She finished off the second bottle and started on the third before she went on. "Then we rescued the Chinese Princess and her brother, the heir apparent, when they were captured in California." Mei tried to interrupt again, but Hattie cut her off, the alcohol was making her more brutally honest now.

"Look Mei, strictly speaking it's accurate and you know it! Your titles in the family records that were supplied so that we could set things up for you and Li translate to Princess and Prince, don't they?" Mei wanted to argue but she nodded resignedly, so Hattie nodded triumphantly and went on with the story.

"When we rescued the Princess and the young Prince, we were given the job of escorting them safely to the boarding school in New York that Mei-Ling had been escorting her brother to when they were captured. We did that, making a few changes to ensure his safety. Then, as we were in New York, we took over the search to find Johnny's wife and daughter. In the meantime, Johnny and the Princess had been getting closer. Anyway, after a while, we found that the reason that no-one had been able to find them was that his wife had gotten remarried a few years after he'd officially died, but we also found that they were still living in her aunt's house, which she'd inherited after her aunt had died."

"Johnny admitted how he'd decided to give up and go back to the west coast when he found that Kathleen had remarried but told how we'd all, especially Sarah and Mei, worked to convince him that his daughter deserved a chance to get to know her father, so with that, we all went with him to a function to meet Kathleen and her husband."

She waved her glass at Mei as she went on. "Mei went to that function as his partner because he needed her. Kathleen was hurt when she heard that Johnny was about to just turn around and leave, even if she could see his reasoning, and she was grateful to Mei, Sarah and the rest of us for making him stay and make the effort to see Alex."

"So Johnny told the story about how we met Kathleen and her husband, and how he'd told her everything that had happened after he'd been left for dead, and how Kathleen had invited him to their home to meet his daughter, even though she could see that he was with Mei. After all, she'd remarried when she believed he was dead, so she could hardly blame him for doing the same. Kathleen had presumed that they'd been together for some time you see, what with how comfortable they were together."

"He told Miss Porter how we all went to the Waterman's to meet Alex, and how we were getting an increasingly bad feeling about her husband. When he heard that Alex wasn't getting any better education than a second rate deportment school, Johnny made arrangements for them to come to our law firm so that he could put things in place for Alex to go to a good school."

John interjected at that point to say that that had been Sarah's doing not his, but Hattie cut him off to say that she was repeating the story as told to Miss Porter, and that was what she was told. Jane found it interesting that neither John nor Mei had even tried to argue the position that they were together, so obviously they felt it themselves even if they weren't openly admitting it yet.

"Anyway, we reminded her of how she'd been contacted by the President's office to request that Alex be admitted to the school, how we'd brought Alex up the next day to enrol her, and told her how Kathleen had changed her name back to Coburn under legal advice once she'd been granted her divorce from Alan Waterman."

"Once we'd gotten to that point, Johnny looked Miss Porter in the eye and pointed out that in every moral and legal sense, Kathleen _WAS_ Alex Coburn's widow, because Alex Coburn had died that day back in sixty, and he was John Casey now. He also told her that before the end of the war, he'd met a senior officer who'd recognised him from when he was at West Point, and when he'd told him the story of what had happened, that officer had signed off for him to remain in the Army as John Casey, and how he was still working for the same man."

"Johnny also pointed out that we, as a group, don't hold marriage lightly. He'd married Kathleen while they were out west in the Indian wars (this was only a small white lie, they'd been planning to when her father was killed). Chuck and Sarah had gotten married at the start of their adventure together, and Ellie, Andy, Tommy and I had gotten married soon after we were forced to realise how easy it was to have everything taken from you, so we didn't want to wait and risk losing what we loved. It was a moving speech, I have to say. Through all of this, Mei had been holding Johnny's hand to help him get through it, and Miss Porter had definitely noted that."

"Anyway, Miss Porter agreed not to expel Alex for fighting, and severely disciplined that other girl for telling malicious false stories about another student and her family when she found out just what the girl had said to Alex. Either someone had been listening in or Miss Porter was a gossip, though, because within days the stories were going around that it had been confirmed that Kathleen _WAS_ legally and morally entitled to call herself Alex Coburn's widow, and that she'd lost Alex's father to a Chinese Princess back when she was married to her second husband and believed herself to be a widow, so that was why they weren't together now, even though she had since divorced her second husband. Luckily the more sensitive details about Sarah and the like were left out of the stories going around, which makes it all the more likely that it was from Miss Porter's gossip. So, that's the story."

The others were rather concerned about Hattie by this stage, as she'd pretty much polished off three bottles of the Two Widow's rather potent tequila herself, and that was something most men over twice her size couldn't do and hope to stay upright, so they were just waiting for the alcohol to hit her. Indeed, Hattie began to fade very quickly once she finished the story, so they thanked Bolonia and Jane for the meal, made their goodbyes, and Tom carried his wife back to the Lafayette.

* * *

In the morning Sarah and Chuck sat down with Jane to talk about the investments in the local businesses and ranches that she was making for them. Jane was a very astute business woman, as shown by the way that she'd set up herself and Bolonia for a comfortable life with very little to start with, and the way she was managing Al, Mike and Jeff's business interests for them, not to mention what Sarah knew of her abilities from New Orleans (she'd been the one who'd taught Sarah the business principles that enabled her to handle matters as she'd been doing).

This had made it a very logical step on their part to sit down and discuss with her the type of businesses that, for various reasons, they wanted to get a stake in, and provide her with access to the funds to make what investments that she deemed sensible or advantageous to their plans. Jane was prepared to discuss that, but there was something else that she wanted to talk about first.

"So, Sarah, your Uncle Sam, he is actually President Grant?"

Sarah winced. "I was hoping that you may have missed that."

"Not hardly, do you really think so little of me to believe that I would miss something like that child?"

"No Tante Jeanne, I was just hoping against hope to avoid this discussion. Yes, my Uncle Sam, whom we work for, is President Grant."

"You remember that I told you that I'd been captured by the Union officer that I was sent after towards the end of the war? Well that was General Grant. He could have easily had me hung, shot, locked up or turned over to the men as I'd been threatened with time and time again but he took me in, treated me like a daughter (like a good man treats his daughter, not like my father did). He assigned Uncle John to watch over me, and while we're telling you secrets, Uncle John was the Bear, and I'm sure you heard about him?"

Jeanne was staring wide eyed at her. "Oh yes, I heard about the Bear all right, the stories said that he killed more men than any unit in the Confederacy."

Sarah nodded. "And he protected me from when I was twelve and was forced to spy for the Colonel, anyway, I basically gave myself up to General Grant, and Uncle John gave himself up after he thought he'd killed Chuck…."

She stopped at the confused expression on Jane's face. "Chuck was holding a position that Uncle John had been tasked to take, and Chuck wouldn't stay down when he was shot. Uncle John kept shooting him because he had a duty to take the position. He was also sure once Chuck went down, they would take the position, but when Chuck did finally go down, Tom took charge of the men and managed to hold the position until Union reinforcements could arrive."

"Uncle John was so disgusted with the war and himself, because he'd killed a hero for nothing, that he gave himself up. Tom stopped another officer from having him shot on the spot and sent him back to command for questioning because he knew he was something special. The officer he was taken to for questioning was Uncle Sam, who recognised him from when he'd gone to speak to his West Point class, so he gave him a chance to tell him the story of what had happened."

"Uncle Sam accepted Uncle John's story of why he'd done what he'd done, took him into the Union Army at his old rank and kept him there for when he'd need a man of his calibre."

"After the war, Uncle Sam and Aunt Julia looked after me, but I misbehaved a lot, so he gave in and got me accepted to Columbia Law School, as Samuel Walton as they wouldn't accept women. I graduated Magna Cum Laude, with high honours (she added as Jane was looking confused) and was admitted to the bar in New York early, in sixty eight, and he told me that if I stayed out of trouble, I could work for him when he was inaugurated."

"Because if that I made sure that I was a good girl from then until he was sworn in as the President, and he made me a Special Secret Service Agent, reporting directly to him, and that's how we came to be here. Now, can we talk about what we came here to talk about, please?"

Jane was staring at her with a stricken expression, and was trying to hold her tears in she she got the books out, so Sarah reached over to gently take her hand. "It wasn't all bad Tante Jeanne, Uncle Sam is a good man, and so is Uncle John, and they've looked after me. And now I have a wonderful husband who looks after me even better, and a family, and I have you back in my life, so I think I'm rather lucky nowadays."

Jane burst into tears and threw her arms around Sarah, whispering that she'd always damn Jacques for putting her in the position to make that happen to her before she found these wonderful people.

After about fifteen minutes, she'd managed to settle herself down enough for them to look at the business matters, but she still had a tear in her eye as she looked at Sarah.

* * *

They were just about to leave Los Angeles to head back up to the Mojave to pick up where they'd left off when they received an urgent telegraph from Uncle Sam, telling them to drop whatever they were doing and get to New Orleans as fast as possible.

Upon reading that, Chuck went straight to the telegraph office to send a reply, and he was too aggravated to bother code the message. 'Uncle, have you forgotten that many of us, and especially my wife and her uncle are from there? Not safe! Elder'

Uncle Sam must have been expecting this as the response came back immediately. 'I know son, but it's a powder keg with a lit fuse down there. I need you to deal with it, all of you!'

What Chuck did next was a measure of how worried about Sarah he was, as he sent 'If anything happens to her, I'm coming for you!' before leaving without waiting for a reply.

He went back to the Two Widows (where they'd received the first message), and threw Uncle Sam's response on the table, but the response Uncle had sent to his parting message had arrived before him by runner, and Sarah was looking a question at him as she held it out to him. 'If anything happens to her, I'll be waiting here for what I deserve.'

She looked around to make sure no-one outside their group was in earshot before hissing at him. "Chuck, did you just threaten the President?"

He just shrugged and went to the bar, snapping "Tequila, bottle!" at Jorje, much more abruptly than he'd ever spoken to him before.

Jorje didn't take offence at the way Mr Chuck talked to him, as he'd never seen him anything like this upset before so something bad must have happened to make him like this, he just put the bottle and a glass on the bar without a word.

Chuck ignored the glass, and managing to nod thanks to Jorje, he pulled the cork out with his teeth and spat it out, swigging from the bottle as he walked back to the table. When Tom tried to take the bottle off him, the look he gave him made him back up a couple of steps. While obviously furious and apparently determined to get drunk though, Chuck was all business when he spoke.

"As you can see from the telegrams, we have to get to New Orleans as soon as possible, and we'll be walking into a volatile situation, so we're taking everyone this time, and everything we might need. We'll charter a fast steamer to San Francisco, then use a private train so we can go faster and push for less stops and delays. With the two Pullman cars, five big horse cars and a large baggage car, that's quite enough to make up a full train anyway, and we'll use the baggage car for any luggage and feed for the mules, plus the empty stalls if we have to."

"We'll be more conspicuous than I generally like to be, chartering a steamer and forcing our way through the rail stages this way, but apparently we have no choice in this. Now, when we're down there, no-one is to go _anywhere_ alone, travel in pairs at a minimum, but I'd prefer bigger groups than that."

They were all staring at him, and Sarah leapt to her feet, grabbing his hand to drag him over to an empty corner out of earshot from the others. She looked to make sure that no-one had followed them and then hissed. "Chuck, what's wrong with you? Why are you acting like this?"

He tried to divert, saying. "It's not safe for you and John to go back there, there's too much chance of someone recognising you and coming after you as turncoats to the South."

Sarah was looking deep into his eyes now and she could see fear, no, more than that, _terror_ in them, and she could tell that it was for her, most of it anyway.

She shook her head, saying. "No, there's more to this than that, what is it?"

Chuck tried to turn away, but she grabbed his face and made him look her in the eye. "Tell me!"

He glanced at the others and lowered his voice. "I believe that there is another one down there."

Sarah started to say "Another wha….?", but she stopped and her eyes went wide. "There's another one of those creatures there?"

Chuck nodded. "Yes, or at least it was there when the one I took went there, and New Orleans was its territory then. From the Daemon's memories, I would expect that it would still be there, as it's the perfect hunting ground down there for things such as them."

Sarah clutched at him, and he held her while she came to grips with this.

It didn't take her long to settle herself (she'd been dealing with life and death situations all her life, and she was made of sterner stuff than just about anyone), and then she leaned out to get Ellie and John's attention, signalling them to bring Andy, Tom, Hattie, Mei, Rick and Hank over.

When they were there and she'd confirmed that no-one else was in earshot, she looked at Chuck and said "Tell them!"

When he did, they were all disturbed, but Ellie's expression cleared as she now understood why Chuck was behaving so strangely. He was worried about all of them, of course, but she knew that it was more that she and Sarah would effectively be going into the lair of one of these creatures that was making him like this.

She shared a look with Sarah and they grimly nodded together, this news definitely explained his behaviour.

They coded the messages to arrange the charter of the steamer and train, with all their requirements, but when Sarah went to send them to the law firm, she slipped in a third coded message to Uncle Sam.

This third message explained that Chuck's previous reaction was partly because he had information that a very dangerous associate of the dark rider that he'd had so much trouble dealing with in Boston had been sighted in the area that they were going to, this was why he was so concerned about their safety.

When Uncle Sam received that message, at first he couldn't work out what she was talking about, but when he did, he went pale at the thought that there was another one of those things that Chuck had talked about, and he was sending Sarah and the others straight to it. What had he done?

He reached for the pen and ink to write a message to cancel the operation, but stopped himself as he grabbed the pen, putting it back down again. If the stories they were hearing were true, what was going on in Louisiana could threaten the whole nation, that was why he'd insisted that they _had_ to go, and why he could not rescind that order now, but what he could do to make sure that they had whatever support they needed?

With that thought he picked up the pen again, to write out the order to dispatch a steam frigate to New Orleans, with a company of Marines aboard to stand by, ready to render any assistance to the Barton party required by Colonel's Barton and Casey, Major Paterson and Agents Walker and Quinlan. To his mind it wasn't nearly enough, but it was as much as he could do. He just prayed to God that they didn't find that thing down there!

* * *

They had another problem in Los Angeles, because when Anna and Jane heard that they were going to New Orleans, they both wanted to go with them.

Anna wasn't too difficult to put off, they just pointed out that they still needed her to help the other Chinese girls, and they were going into too dangerous a situation to take anyone who didn't know how to fight. Jane was a different matter.

Chuck tried to help Sarah talk her out of it, but she was the one on the spot here. Jane pleaded with her, and she finally resorted to using something that Sarah had no defence against.

When Jane pointed out that, other than Henri, she had no idea who of her friends and those she cared about were alive after Jacques had given them all up when he was trying to save himself, Sarah broke, and promised to talk to Chuck about it.

Chuck wasn't at all happy that Jane had done that to Sarah, but once the horse had bolted there wasn't anything he could do about it. He called Tom in, and they agreed that they could have two or three troopers with her at all times, perhaps older ones who'd fit in with her age better. With that agreed, Chuck went to tell Jane under what terms that she could come along. Sarah went with him, but she let him do all the talking.

When he told Jane that she would be accompanied at all times and she would stay with them at the same hotel, she refused, saying that she couldn't find her people under those conditions, not expecting Chuck's response at all.

"Then you will stay here then! You will _ONLY_ be allowed to come along if you agree to those terms _AND_ comply with them. If you agree and then try to slip away from your guards, I'll have you locked up on a Navy ship that will be out in the harbour until we come to get you and bring you back here."

She looked at Sarah as she said "Sarah wouldn't let you do that!" but Sarah just stood there, stony faced without saying a word. Jane started to wonder what she'd gotten herself into, but she turned back to Chuck as he spoke again.

"I was under the impression that you had a good mind Jane, but I'm starting to doubt that. This is my decision, and Sarah will go along with me if you push me into doing that because _SHE_ understands that it's for your safety, even if you don't."

"We don't want to go to New Orleans ourselves, because we have information that a wanton killer that we've been trying to locate is down there. The only reason I've agreed for us to go at all is that the President has told us that the situation down there could have serious consequences on the entire nation, and what's more it's a powder keg about to explode…."

He looked at her without emotion, and a chill ran through her as he began to speak again. "So no, Sarah will not argue with me on this, and furthermore you only have until we walk out of here to give me your commitment that you agree to all the conditions and that you will not try to get away from your protection details once we're there, or you will not be coming….. And one more thing…."

He leaned in to look her straight in the eye. "If you _EVER_ try to blackmail my wife by bringing up her father's actions like that again, I will throw you off the train in the middle of the prairie!"

Chuck stepped back and looked at her coldly. "Do you agree to accept and abide by the conditions that I have told you?"

Jane stared at him, more afraid of him than she ever thought she could be, and whispered. "Yes."

Chuck nodded coldly and asked. "Can you ride side saddle?"

"Yes, but why?"

"Because if we need to move in a hurry, we'll have to ride, and you'll have to come with us."

He turned to Sarah and his face and voice changed. "Can you get her measurements so we can send them to Mr Landis to make up another side saddle, or would you rather someone else do it?"

She nodded and he stepped in to kiss her, whispering. "I'm sorry that I had to do that, but I had to get it through to her."

She shook her head and whispered back. "No, you were right, it was the only way to make her pay attention. I'll get the measurements now. And….. thank you for addressing the blackmail thing, that hurt."

He kissed her again. "For you, anything, you are my world. I love you."

She kissed him back and said. "Love you too!"

Then she pulled a tape measure out of her pocket and went to Jane to measure her. It was partly out of anger at Jane, and partly to make a point that Chuck didn't leave or turn away as she did this, as he normally would have as a matter of courtesy.

After they'd left, Jane sat down with Bolonia and explained that she was going away on a trip with Sarah and her people for a while. She also talked to Al to explain why she had to do this, and to get him to move into her house and look after Anna while she was gone.

* * *

The first thing in the morning, Sarah sent Mr Landis a telegram with Jane's measurements, asking him if he get another one of their side saddles made up to these measurements to fit their mules in less than a week? He responded quickly that he could and would, and she wired him the money (paying a third more than they'd paid previously for the side saddles for the inconvenience) with a thank you note.

Once that was done, she collected Jane from the two Widows and took her to Al's stable. She'd borrowed Hattie's molly and Mei's side saddle (Mei was the closest to Jane's size, so her saddle would fit Jane the best, and Crow was one of the smallest and quietest of their mollies who was used to the side saddle), because if Tante Jeanne was going to come with them, they had to make sure that she could ride first.

Hattie had already tried out Bessie (Black Bess), one of their more spirited mollies, and said that she'd be happy with her, especially as now that she was more used to the big mules, Crow was a little too quiet for her tastes. Sarah grinned for the first time since the issue with Tante Jeanne came up when Hattie said that because they were two of a kind in that, they both loved a spirited horse (or mule).

Ellie and Hattie went for the ride with them, and Jane could see that they were as angry with her as Chuck had been. She'd tried to apologise to Sarah, but Sarah wasn't over the hurt enough to accept any apologies yet. Ben and three troopers went along as well.

Jane was a bit rusty at first, but she picked up quickly and was doing fairly well. She may have been motivated to try and catch up to Sarah to make her hear her apology, but whatever the reason she improved to the point where Sarah decided that she'd be able to keep up if they needed to ride hard for some reason.

That was enough to get Sarah to listen to her apology. The first thing that Jane apologised for was the obvious, using her father's guilt to push her into agreeing. She explained that she hadn't planned it, but the more Sarah refused the more desperate she'd become, so in the end she was grabbing at anything to swing her, without thinking of what she was bringing up.

She also explained why she was so desperate, she and Henri _had_ both been worried about their friends since they'd left. Every time that Henri had tried to go back to New Orleans to look for them, though, he'd been chased out of town by those Italians, the Mafia.

Jane then told Sarah her story, the story she had never anyone before. "I was born a slave on a plantation in Alabama, over Mobile way, and my Mama called me Pearl. I think I was only nine or ten when the master first took me, he considered it his right, seeing as I was his property and all. He did that a lot over the next year or so, and the first chance I got to run away, I did."

"I almost got caught a bunch of times, but each time I managed to hide and I made it to Mobile. It was hard, living on the streets and trying to avoid those that wanted to use me like the master had, but then a lady took me in and fed me. I thought that she was a nice lady, until I found out that she was a Madame, and she had just taken me in to make me work in her brothel."

"I was trapped in that brothel for the next four or five years, as Pearl, the pretty baby of the house. The only things that I had going in my favour was that the Madame had strict rules that no customer was allowed to damage or mark me in any way, and she made me learn about deportment, the arts, news and other things, so I could present a more intelligent and classy image for her more highfalutin clients, but that didn't make my existence there that much better."

"In fifty five, when I was fifteen or so I reckon, disease went through the house. Nearly everyone died and the good people of the town, our neighbours, burned the house down with everyone in it to stop the spread of the disease. I managed to escape out a window and got out of Mobile as quick as I could, because I knew what the 'good people of the town' would do if they found that anyone had managed to get out of the plague house."

"I had to give some men what they wanted to get them to take me to New Orleans, but it gave me a new start so I told myself that it was a necessary evil. Once I got to New Orleans though, I promised myself that I'd never be a whore again, and I've stuck to that promise. That of course meant that I had to find some other way to make a living, so I gave myself a new name, Jeanne Bellamy, and went into the confidence game, using my wits instead of my other assets, well, more than my other assets anyway, to get what I needed."

"As it turned out, my wits were enough to give me a good life, and I was doing well. I made some good investments with the money I got, and was living quite comfortably. The people in the game there treated me better than anyone in my life ever had before, and they respected me for my wit and capabilities. Henri was one of the inner circle of people who'd supported me since I arrived in New Orleans, and gave me the family that I'd never had."

"A few years after I'd settled into New Orleans another grifter blew into town with his daughter, Jacques and Elana Truffaut, at least those were the names they used in New Orleans. Jacques was a charming man and the girls liked him, but he always played fast and loose with the rules of the Family, as we called ourselves, so he was rarely in town for more than a month or two before we kicked him out, because the sloppy methods he used to get a quick buck kept threatening to expose the rest of us to the 'ordinary' people that we ran our games on and lived among. We had our own livelihoods and lives to worry about so Jacques kept getting run out of town, as you well know."

"Aside from the girls whom he'd dallied with, few of us were sorry to see the back of Jacques when he left town, but we did miss Elana, because that beautiful little girl was a delight." Jane looked at Sarah with a smile as she said. "You were always a ray of sunshine in our lives child, we all loved you."

Sarah gave her a shy smile at that and reached out to gently squeeze her hand.

Jane's story went quickly after that, as she explained that they'd all scattered or gone to ground after Jacques gave them up, trying to save himself. She and Henri had no idea who else had survived, which was why she was so desperate to get back there, to find who of her family was still alive.

Sarah nodded when she finished, then said. "We'll try to help you Tante Jeanne, but you _must_ do as Chuck says, and not try to slip away from those assigned to watch over you. He wasn't just trying to scare you with what he said, the one we believe is in New Orleans is very dangerous, it's like the one who murdered his and Ellie's parents, they kill for enjoyment and they're _very_ good at it. Promise me that you will abide by Chuck's rules?"

Jane looked her in the eye and nodded when she saw the fear and conviction in Sarah's face. "All right Sarah, I promise that I will do what Charles says in New Orleans."

Just then, one of the troopers came riding up to tell them that they had confirmation that the steamer was booked, and they were leaving in five hours. At that they turned around and headed back to the stable, because they had no time to waste.


	6. Little Dragons and the Crescent City

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

By the time they got back to town, Chuck had organised for a few open cars (just gondola cars with drop railings on one side) on the train to transport them down to the docks, and they were packing what they needed to take with them. Most of their things were being left in the secure storage at the Lafayette, while the wagons with the chuck box, bedrolls etc would be staying in Al's stable, or out at the rancho if room was an issue.

Most of their gear was going into their saddlebags and the panniers of the pack saddle mochilas going on the five spare mules who'd been relegated to pack mule roles, but the larger items (such as the sniper rifles, extra repeaters, carbines and shotguns, collars and harnesses and the formal clothes they'd need down there) were in the trunks strapped across the panniers on the pack mules or the saddlebags on the riding mules.

Chuck considered sending Mr Landis a telegram about the shortened schedule, but decided against it, as they hadn't had confirmation of the train as yet. This proved to have been a sensible decision when they arrived in San Francisco to find that getting all the cars they wanted together in San Francisco was still at least a day away.

As the trip to the dock was only an hour, they stayed out on the flat cars with the mules, keeping them settled. They'd left them saddled for the trip, just removing the trunks, saddlebags and panniers. Chuck and Sarah stood together as usual, quieting Diablo and Bruja, who didn't like being jolted about like they were on this train ride.

On the way down to the docks, Sarah told Chuck Jane's story (with Jane's permission). It helped Chuck understand why she'd done what she did, but it still couldn't make him like, or forgive, what she'd done. Jane was standing with Ellie at the other end of the flat car, watching Chuck and Sarah, and she turned to Ellie to ask a question. "Ellie, Chuck told me that he'd throw me off the train in the middle of the plains if I ever did anything to hurt Sarah again, was he serious?"

Ellie gave her a cool look. "When it comes to anyone hurting Sarah in any way, you better believe that he's serious about what he'll do to them!"

Jane responded miserably. "I'd never intentionally hurt her, she's like a daughter to me, it was just, well you heard me tell her what made me do it."

Ellie nodded, but said. "Yes, but never do anything like that again unless you want to be cut off from her, from all of us. She's like a sister to Hattie and I, and John's been her protective uncle since almost back to when you knew her, so it's not only Chuck you'll need to worry about of you ever hurt her again."

Jane nodded, glad to see how Ellie and the others were so protective of Sarah, even if it was her in their sights at the moment, but then it truly was impossible to know Elana and not love her.

When they reached the station at the docks, the side railings of the flat cars were lowered so that they could lead the mules off and down to the docks. The steamer was at the dock, still being fueled up, so they led the mules straight on. They still had to be slung and lowered down into the hold, but they weren't in the slings for the time it took to be picked up from the dock, swung right over the ship and then down into the hold, so it upset them a lot less.

The large contingent of armed and impatient looking passengers who were now on the ship spurred the steamer's complement to get the coal and everything else on board as quickly as possible, so that they could get under way. These people didn't look like they would take any unnecessary delays at all well, and no-one wanted to test them. They were being paid hefty bonuses never to talk about these passengers but after seeing them, fear would have been enough to ensure that.

The weather was at least in their favour, and they'd docked in San Francisco within two days, to be met at the dock by the law clerk from the San Francisco law firm that Tolbert, Ives and Jager used for any dealings in San Francisco, with the telegram saying that their train wouldn't be ready for at least another day.

The law clerk stepped back in fear when he saw the anger on Chuck's face upon reading the message but Chuck quickly apologised to him, saying that this was bad news that he could have done without, but it wasn't his fault. He asked him to send a message back to Tolbert, Ives and Jager to keep the train at Oakland when it was put together, as they'd make their way there.

He also asked for recommendations as to a hotel and livery stable in Oakland with the capacity to take their group for a day or two but the man had no idea, so Chuck gritted his teeth and asked whether anyone at the law firm would be able to help? At that the man, eager to please this frightening man, frantically assured him that there would most certainly be someone who could help there.

Chuck nodded and told him to lead on, looking at Tom, who also nodded and signalled Ben and half a dozen troopers to go with them. As being obviously heavily armed in downtown San Francisco would attract too much attention, the troopers handed their Winchesters off to others before following Chuck.

* * *

They came back an hour later with bookings for a hotel, livery stable, and the ferry across to Oakland.

On the ferry, Chuck pulled Mei, Sarah, John, Hattie, Tom, Andy and Rick aside and told them that, given that they were stuck there for a day and they had the full Platoon with them, he thought it was time to go after the Tong.

They could get the mules settled in the livery stable with a contingent of troopers guarding them and their luggage and equipment, and book into the hotel. They would then organise a boat to take them back to San Francisco after dark, and later return them to Oakland. Once it was dark, they'd take Ellie, Adele and Jane to the livery stable and leave them there with the troopers to guarding the mules and their gear while the rest of the party headed over to San Francisco and hit the Tong.

Mei's first question was. "What about the girls they have there? It will surely be like Los Angeles."

Chuck nodded. "John and I are both Colonels, so we have the authority to command the assistance of the military unit at the Presidio. We'll take any girls we find in the Tong houses to the Presidio and order them to care for the girls until arrangements can be made to get them to somewhere they'll be safe."

Mei looked relieved to hear that, and then asked. "How will we know what houses to hit?"

"We'll pool what you and I know, that should give us the majority of them, we may miss some, and we may pick up some from the other Tong, but we should hit them fairly hard."

Mei nodded at that, as did the others, but when they turned to head back to the others, Ellie was marching towards them so they stayed where they were.

"What are you up to? I know that you're planning something here!"

Chuck pulled her over to the rail, further away from the other passengers, and whispered. "We're going to hit the Tong tonight, the one that had Mei and Anna."

She calmed down a little and said (more quietly). "And I presume that as Jane, Adele and I weren't included in the discussion, we won't be included in this raid?"

Chuck shook his head. "No, it's too dangerous, we're only taking people who have experience in the type of fighting we'll have in there."

Ellie nodded at that, and then reminded Sarah why she loved her sister-in-law so. "What about the girls? You can't just leave them to fend for themselves, and we don't know anyone to look after them here like we did in Los Angeles."

Chuck smiled and repeated what he told Mei.

When the ferry docked, Chuck looked at John and he, Hattie and Tom all handed their mules off to someone else and headed off to find a boat that they could charter to take them across to San Francisco, and later bring them back.

At the livery stable, as per Chuck's plan they saw to the mules, got them settled and left eight troopers there to watch them and the baggage and equipment while the rest went to check into the hotel and get ready for their raid. When Chuck spread out a map of San Francisco on the bed in his and Sarah's room, a few of them went to ask where he'd gotten it from, but shook their heads and decided not to bother.

Chuck took a pencil and marked up all the Tong locations that he knew of via the memories he'd acquired from the Old One before handing the pencil to Mei. Mei didn't have many more sites to add, but she did have additional information that she'd learned when she was searching for Li about entrances, guards, location of the girls etc at some of the sites.

They then prepared the weapons that they were taking while they waited for the others to get back with word of the boat. As with their attack on the Tong in Los Angeles, they needed to keep this quiet, and also to make it look like a Tong war as much as they could, so they would be using blades wherever possible, and use hatchets on the bodies to make it look like they were killed with them.

Most of them were using the cutlasses that Chuck had made, though Chuck was using two cutlasses, and Mei was using the butterfly swords that Chuck had made for her. Those going in first were carrying the .38s with the hiders as well. In case things went all to hell and the quiet approach went out the window though, Chuck and John were also carrying what were effectively sawn off versions of the shotgun carbines. He'd made up two of them as pistols with 12" barrels and wooden forends so that they could hang on with both hands. If they needed to clear a path out of the Tong house, these should do it.

They were nearly ready by the time John, Hattie and Tom got back, and Chuck had gone over the map and prioritised their attacks. He knew quite well that the over two dozen sites that they had marked represented at least three or four of the Tongs, maybe more, but just like in Los Angeles he wanted to slow them all down for a while at least, that was why he was planning to hit as many they could. The house that Mei had identified as the place where she was held and abused was the first on their list, but his plan was to strike a blow against the Tongs in general.

The plan was relatively simple, and it was much like what they did in Los Angeles. Chuck, John, Sarah, Mei and Hattie would go in first and quietly take out those they found, then let the others in to mop up the rest. Anyone in any of the houses who wasn't forced to be there would be killed, and if they took out a few rich patrons who were users of the girls rather than the purveyors of the girls, they wouldn't be upset.

Once they'd taken out the threats, they'd free the girls, hack up the Tong bodies to make it look like a Tong hatchet attack, then clean out any cash, valuables and paperwork. They'd take any carriages or wagons they found at the houses to move the girls away from there.

With that, they were ready, and it was dark enough to move out so they left the hotel via the front door, letting them know that they'd be coming back later, possibly late. The ladies were wearing dresses over their very unladylike, but practical clothes.

They left Ellie, Adele and Jane at the stables with Ben and seven troopers and plenty of weapons, then hurried down to the pier where the boat was supposed to be waiting. They were gratified, and a little surprised, to find that it was.

There was little discussion on the trip across the bay to San Francisco, as most of them were checking that all their pistols were fully loaded and testing the edges of their (many) bladed weapons. This was thoroughly frightening the sailors, so when they docked and the party were leaving the boat the big man (that is one of the biggest, the one they called "Colonel Casey", because six or seven of them were giants and another dozen or more weren't that much smaller) went to the Skipper and 'asked' him. "You'll be here when we get back?"

The Skipper looked up at him and stammered. "Yes. Yes Sir!"

The man nodded and then turned and bounded onto the dock, rushing off to catch up with the others.

One of the sailors asked "Are we waiting Skipper?" and the Skipper turned on him with a furious expression. "Of course we are! Would you want _THEM_ to come after you because you didn't do what you said? Well I don't! This boat will be here waiting when they get back!"

* * *

The reached their first Tong house quickly, going through the back lanes. Chuck held Sarah up so that she could unlock and open a window, then hoisted her through, hoisting Mei and Hattie through after her before getting a boost himself from John, who he in turn hoisted up to quieten his entry. They went through the house, quickly and quietly knifing or shooting (using the hiders) any men they found (the girls did the same to the old women who'd been selling the Chinese girls like pieces of meat to any man who had the coin because they weren't about to let any false chivalry on Chuck or John's part save those evil bitches).

When they reached some particularly lavish chambers and looked in at their main occupant, it was obvious from the unholy gleam in Mei's eye that she'd found one of the primary ones responsible for what had been done to her. She confirmed that moments later. "Harry Tang!" The man woke, at first confused, then attempting to be commanding, and then collapsing into his fear as Mei spoke. "Do you remember me?"

He peered at her and then shook his head, trying to save face with bravado. "No, why would I? Were you my bed warmer or something when you were younger?"

She looked a him for about a minute before she responded. "No, I was the one who you said was too old to try and sell as a virgin, so you told the men to give me the experience I needed to work in a brothel."

Tang's eyes widened as he recognised her then, he'd enjoyed himself that day, and he'd remembered the fun of it for a long time, but he hadn't been told that she'd escaped, and he'd never thought that there could be any chance that she could be here, like this, ready to turn the tables on him.

"No! No! That wasn't me! That was the other elders! I had to go along with them or lose face!"

"I saw you! I heard you! It was _your_ idea, you lying snake!"

Tang's next words sealed his fate. "It wasn't anything you shouldn't have already been used to!"

Mei began to lunge at him, but was stopped when John gently grasped her shoulders and for all of his gentle touch, it was a grip that she couldn't break. He looked her in the eye and asked "Please, let me?"

While she desperately wanted to kill Tang then and there, she looked into his eyes and nodded, he tenderly kissed her on the forehead and let her go, moving to the bed.

Tang scrabbled back, trying to escape, but there was nowhere for him to go. He told them where the money was hidden, trying to buy his freedom, but John and the others just ignored him.

Then Tang grabbed the young girl in the bed with him to try and use her as a shield, but John's hand closed around his wrist with a grip that crushed the bones, making him scream in agony and release her. John took the girl gently by the hand, pulling her from the bed and leading her to Mei, who wrapped her in her arms and looked on as John returned to the bed.

A palm strike broke off one of the posts at the foot of the bed, and it became obvious what he was going to do. The women broke into grim smiles, even the girl, but Chuck was disturbed. He didn't doubt that Tang deserved this but what was about to happen, it really disturbed him.

Tang made another attempt to escape, trying to crawl off the other side of the bed, but he inadvertently made it simpler for John as he grabbed one ankle to keep him on the bed.

Just then Mei called out. "Wait!"

Both men looked at her, John to see what she needed, Tang in some vain hope that this would be a reprieve.

Mei smiled grimly at Tang and said. "Smooth Lau sends her regards, but don't worry, you'll be seeing her soon."

Tang was the one who'd made Smooth Lau his concubine, and probably contributed to what she'd become before Mei killed her, so Mei couldn't think of a better way to twist the knife.

She then nodded at John, and he pulled Tang back by the ankle while thrusting the post forward with his other hand. Tang's screams filled the room, but they ignored them as Sarah and Hattie found clothes for the girl and the women helped her dress while Chuck and John went around the room, collecting valuables (including the money that Tang had told them about) and paperwork to shore up the cover that another Tong had came in to remove the competition and clean them out.

No-one came in response to Tang's screams, so obviously screaming coming from his chambers wasn't unusual. By the time they'd finished, His screams had subsided, as he was almost done, so Mei took the girl by the hand and they all left. They let the others in and located the girls, freeing them and leading them down to the rear of the building where they'd found some horses and wagons. The troopers quickly harnessed the horses to the wagons while the girls were helped into the wagons, and Mei climbed in with them to talk to the girls and calm them, explaining the plans for them.

The men went through the building, hacking up all the bodies with hatchets (including Tang's), then they headed for the next house.

They spent the next six hours wiping out the Tong houses, releasing any girls they found, taking any valuables and leaving nothing but hacked up Tong bodies. Then they headed for the Presidio.

* * *

When they arrived at the Presidio, they had a dozen wagons, of which eight were full of girls that the Commander of the Presidio would have to look after until Uncle Sam made proper arrangements for their care. They had a plan for what they wanted to do for the girls' longer term prospects, but first they had to get them safely into the Presidio.

As expected, the guard at the gate wasn't at all co-operative when they told him that they had to see the Commander right away, as it was late at night and the Commander wouldn't lower himself to see a rough lot like this anyway! Chuck disarmed the soldier and they showed him their credentials, but he still said that he couldn't disturb the Commander.

John swore and picked up the soldier's Sharps rifle and ammunition pouch and proceeded to fire every round into the bell in the tower (of course hitting it every time) so that its peals rang out through the night.

As soldiers poured out of the barracks and challenged them, John bellowed. "I am Colonel John Casey and I want to see the Commander, get him here right now!"

Major Burns, the Presidio Commander came out, pulling his uniform on, and snapped at them that he didn't conduct official business in the middle of the night and they would have to come back in the morning! Then a hush fell over the entire assembly, because John grabbed him by the front of his uniform tunic and lifted him off the ground to look him in the eye.

"If you want to have a job in the morning, you'll let us in right now and do exactly what we tell you! If you haven't bothered reading the standing orders that went out to every base, I suggest that you do so right now, because you'll find one ordering you to render any assistance required to Colonel Casey" (pointing at himself) "and Colonel Barton." (pointing at Chuck) "Now. Are you ready to render that assistance, or do I have to get rid of you and deal with your successor?"

"No! No Colonel Casey! That won't be required, I will do whatever you need!"

John put him down. "For a start, clear out a barracks for these girls where they will be safe and comfortable, then get some doctors to see to them, _good_ doctors who know how to look after women who have been mistreated, and _no-one_ is to leave this base until they've been moved on according to the orders you will be receiving from Washington. If I find that word got out about these girls, I'll track down the one to talked, and I'll deal with the ones who let him do so as well!"

Major Burns shouted orders to get a barracks organised and bring the doctors, while Mei and Chuck explained to the girls that they'd be looked after here until something better could be organised. They found out which of the girls could speak English, and organised them into groups, making sure that every group had at least one or two girls who could speak English fairly well.

Sarah and John went to the telegraph room and started sending telegrams to Uncle Sam, and once his initial anger that they'd done something like this without authorisation while such a critical task was waiting for them in New Orleans had abated (after Sarah pointed out that they couldn't get going to New Orleans until their train arrived), he set people to start making arrangements for the girls immediately.

His tone when he replied to Sarah's comment that they had a long term plan that they were looking into for the girls, to get another rancho and businesses set up down near Los Angeles and take them there to train them up to work them, was worried. He recognised what was implied here, that she and Chuck were making plans to leave his service. Sarah assured him that while they were making plans, they wouldn't be doing that immediately but told him yes, they hoped to be able to make a life for themselves after the current issues were dealt with.

They didn't leave the Presidio until Major Burns had formally acknowledged the orders he'd received from Washington (in the middle of the night, it was unheard of!) to care for these girls until proper arrangements were made for them and they'd been moved on, and to keep the Presidio on lock down until that time. He'd also been made to formally confirm to Washington that he accepted full responsibility for anything that happened to any of the girls until they'd been moved on and he'd been formally relieved of that responsibility.

With the girls being looked after, they piled back into four of the wagons (the ones with the loot) and returned to the docks. The boat was still there, so they quickly unloaded the loot from the wagons, unharnessing the horses and letting them go before they ran the wagons into the bay. Hopefully they'd be out to sea or sunk by morning, leaving no trace of where they'd gone. Anxious to be helpful, the sailors had snagged the wagons to drag them out into the current as the boat left the docks.

Back on the Oakland side they paid off the skipper, adding a hefty bonus for his trouble, and carted the loot up to the livery stable. By this stage it was well after midnight and Ellie, Adele and Jane were frantic (Ben and the men were worried, too, but they tried not to show it). Once they'd confirmed that they had everyone back, they put the loot with their gear, took Ellie, Adele and Jane and headed back to the hotel, making a lot of noise to play up their drunkenness.

The hotel night manager wasn't going to let them in in that state, but he changed his mind quick smart when they drunkenly shouted that if he didn't, they'd break the door down and shoot anyone they found inside. Once inside, they all went to bed to get some much needed rest.

* * *

In the morning, they were abruptly told to leave by the hotel's manager, but as he was doing so a law clerk turned up from the local law firm with a message to say that the last cars for their train would arrive at Oakland shortly, so the train could be refueled and stocked, ready to leave before noon. Chuck smiled as he passed the message around, but his expression and tone hardened as he turned back to the manager.

"Yes, we'll leave as that message was to say that our private train will be ready to leave by noon anyway, but be sure to tell the owners of the hotel that no-one from the organisation that we represent will ever use any of their hotels ever again. Tell them that it's a result of what you just said to us, I'm sure that they'll appreciate it."

The manager scoffed. "Oh I'm sure that the owners will be ever so worried about losing the business of whatever little tin horn outfit that people like you are the representatives for!"

Chuck looked at the law clerk. "Perhaps you could tell him who we represent, so that the owners know not to bother with us any more?"

The man looked hesitant, but Chuck nodded to him with a smile, so he turned to the manager.

"These gentlemen, and ladies, represent the Memphis Trading Group."

The manager sneered at that. Chuck said. "Just be sure to tell the owners that... No. Come to think of it, don't bother."

He turned back to the Law Clerk. "Could your law firm arrange to do that for us, please? And while you're at it, could you find us alternative hotels that can take groups our size around here? We had been staying over in San Francisco, but when we're heading east it would be more convenient to be here near the station when we're waiting for a train to be put together like this."

The man nodded. "Of course, Colonel Barton, anything to be of assistance!"

Chuck turned to the manager again and told him to show them their bill. As expected, there were copious fake charges for damages that they hadn't made, bar and meal tabs for drinks and meals that they hadn't had and the like, to pad the bill out to almost double. Chuck crossed out all the fake items and re-calculated the total, getting the law clerk to check his figures (which took far longer as he wasn't anywhere near as good with his numbers as Chuck was) while Chuck demanded an accounting for the fake charges.

The manager was starting to realise that he might have bitten off more than he could chew with these people, and stammered that the night manager had told him that they'd done all that damage and run up those charges in the bar and the dining room. At that, Chuck pointed to the entry for large breakfasts for forty three people (including Ben and the seven troopers who hadn't set foot in the hotel yet), and all he could say was that he had no idea how that had gotten there.

When the law clerk confirmed Chuck's figures, Chuck paid the exact amount (having to get change from the others to pay the exact figure), and then yanked the bill out of the manager's hand, passing it to the law clerk and saying. "Tell the hotel's owners about this, too, please."

The law clerk smiled as he nodded and said. "Yes Colonel Barton, certainly, we'll add this to the notification that no-one from the Memphis Trading Group will ever use any of their establishments or companies again, and why."

He was enjoying this, being able to get back at stuck up toffs like this manager who thought that they were so much better than everyone else.

Chuck caught the extension of the ban to companies that they had and smiled, until Sarah grabbed his arm and pulled him close to whisper. "Chuck, I just realised. **_We_** own a large part of this hotel! This is part of one of the string of hotels that Memphis invested in."

He grimaced as he heard that but nodded, whispering back. "OK, then I want him and the night manager fired before the week's out, but be sure the books are properly checked before they leave to find out how much they've been skimming and get it all back. They aren't to be allowed to leave with _any_ money they aren't entitled to!"

Sarah smiled at that and went up on tip toe to kiss him on the cheek. "Yes, Colonel Barton!"

She went behind the desk, the growls from Chuck and John making the manager back off when he tried to stop her, and quickly wrote out a coded message for Tolbert, Ives and Jager, ordering the actions that Chuck had just called for to be carried out immediately. When it was done, she handed the message to the law clerk and sweetly asked him if he could send it for her. He bobbed his head shyly (struck by her beauty as most men were), saying. "Yes Missus Barton, of course!"

With that, they left the hotel and headed to the livery stables to collect Ben and his troopers, along with the mules and all their gear. If the train was going to be ready to leave by noon, they didn't have much time to get there and get everything loaded.

The hotel manager was starting to wonder just what he'd gotten himself into, so he decided to go and have a look at this train that had been laid on for these people, but when he saw the train they were loading the mules onto he really started to worry. That train was made up of nothing but two of the newest and biggest Pullman cars, five of those fancy horse cars that rich people used to transport their expensive thoroughbreds in and a baggage car, a train like that said money, _big_ money, he was in so much trouble!

He rushed back to the hotel to grab what cash he could and get out of there, only to find a bookkeeper from the owners waiting for him, with a couple of Pinkerton agents to watch over him. He tried to say that he had to go somewhere, but the Pinkertons said. "No! Orders are that you stay right here until Mr Lipkis has checked the books!"

* * *

They got all their mules on board and settled, then they settled in themselves. As usual they'd cancelled the cooks, citing that their own 'personal chefs' would handle their cars, so Adele's first job was to confirm that the food supplies had been stocked for both cars as she'd specified (she and Weed were cooking in one car and Ellie and John were cooking in the other). Sarah and Chuck, Mei, Jane and Adele, Hank and Weed and Bill and Ben were taking the drawing rooms in one car, while Hattie and Tom, Ellie and Andy, John and Rick and two of the Sergeants were taking the drawing rooms in the other car. The rest of the men were in the open sections of the two cars, with a few bunks spare even after the porters took bunks.

When they'd looked around the cars, they decided that they'd be comfortable enough for four or five days (Jane started to wonder just what they were used to, that they'd casually describe the newest and best of the Pullman cars as 'comfortable enough').

They were happy to see Otis, and hear that he had filled the other porter in on the rules of working with this party.

It wasn't until they were under way that they had the chance to fill Ellie, Jane and Adele in on what happened in the raid on the Tong and at the Presidio. Jane burst out laughing when Chuck told them about what John did to the commander of the Presidio. They all looked at her as if she was insane so she explained.

"Major Burns, Major Frank Burns?" Chuck nodded. "That pompous fool was the commander at the Drum Barracks when Al, Mike and Jeff mustered out of the Army. We probably should thank him actually because it was partly the way he looked down on the men who actually fought the war while he was hiding back in Washington that made the Quartermaster give them so much. He probably wouldn't have dared to stretch the rules as far as he did if he didn't hate that fool so much."

They joined in the laughter then, and promised to have John tell Al, Mike and Jeff the story when they got back to Los Angeles.

Part of the reason to insist on a private train had been to make the haul up to the Summit from the San Francisco side quicker and easier, as with the weight of these cars, them and the mules, their load alone was quite enough for a full train on a stiff climb like that. As usual, they had people staying in the horse cars going through the tunnels at the Summit.

As Chuck had mentioned though, once they were past the Summit, as long as they had clear track in front of them, they could push harder than a regular train could, so they were covering the distance in rather less time than other trains. The only stops that they made were to top up the coal and water, and to wait if they were signalled that the next rail section in front of them wasn't clear. As usual when they had a private train, they took the mules off to give them a break from their cars whenever the train was stopped long enough.

It quickly became clear to the railroad companies that they were traversing the sections quite a bit quicker than any other train, so they took to putting their train through first if they came up to a length of track at the same time as another train coming the other way, which made them even better time and reduced the disturbance to the companies' schedules.

It also didn't take long for the other staff on the train to begin to understand why Otis liked these folk so much, not when Chuck had Otis pass along the message that they'd all be getting their meals from the kitchens on the Hotel cars, along with the passengers. The train staff couldn't quite believe it. These were rich folk, that was obvious, but they didn't treat ordinary folk like no rich folk that they'd ever seen before!

* * *

At first, they didn't have much to do on the train aside from the trooper's guard duties as they wouldn't get the information that Uncle Sam sent until St Louis, or maybe Kansas City, so the core group sat down and discussed what Sarah had alluded to with Uncle Sam, their plan to give the sixty odd young Chinese women they had left in the Presidio a safe home and livelihood, one which also included Chuck and Sarah's plans for their future.

Jane would be playing a significant part in setting this up for them, as she would be organising the purchase of the additional rancho and businesses near Los Angeles that would be used to make up their empire and finding the people they needed for them. Of course, there was also a place in this for the rest of them that wanted it. They talked on this for many hours, and as it began to shape up, Sarah snorted. When the others looked at her, she explained.

"Uncle Sam is going to be angry with us, because if we all go in on this, he's going to lose over forty of his best people. One US Marshal, five Secret Service Agents and thirty five more in Sam, Andy, Rick and their platoon, all in one fell swoop."

They looked at each other as they thought on that, and Chuck asked. "What if he doesn't lose us? What if we still continue operations, just not all the time and we're based in California?"

The others nodded, as they could see the President going for that, but John raised a question. "Supporting well over a hundred and fifty people with these ranchos and businesses, can we do that?"

Jane fielded that question as the business woman. "Yes, it should be workable. With the troopers running the stock, the ranchos could easily support hundreds of head of stock, and the girls can help with the farming, as well as work in shops and other businesses that we set up, but it will take time before they start making money, do you have enough to keep things going until then?"

Sarah snorted again. "Yes Tante Jeanne, I'm fairly certain that we have enough to pay the bills until the new endeavours start making money!"

Mei turned to John to raise another matter. "What about Kathleen and Alex though John? Would you be happy with them being on the other side of the country?"

He looked at little troubled at that, as he'd been thinking the same thing. "I can visit them regularly but maybe, once Alex has finished her education, they might decide to join us in California as well. Maybe Los Angeles will be more civilised by then, and fit for ladies to make their home there."

Mei gently squeezed his arm at that, conveying her hopes that it would work out the way he wanted, and he put his hand over her's, squeezing back in thanks.

Sarah turned to Jane, saying. "It could be years before we can free ourselves from our current commitments to Uncle Sam though Tante Jeanne, can you find us men who can be trusted to work the ranchos and protect them and the girls in the meantime?"

Jane nodded. "Through Bolonia's and my connections, yes, I think we can. One advantage is that while the stock is building up, it will require far less men to watch over them. It would be better if we could tell those men that they would be staying on when things picked up though."

Sarah looked at Chuck and he nodded. "Of course, we're not about to throw them out after we've relied on them to get things established for us, there will be a place there for them when it's settled, with rules of course."

Jane smiled at that. "In that case I'm sure we can get the men we need."

* * *

Before they left Oakland, they'd had the San Francisco law firm send a telegram to Mr Landis to let him know that they would be passing through Kansas city in about three days, and if he hadn't managed to finish Jane's saddle by then, it would be appreciated if he could have it shipped to New Orleans for them. They should have known better than to doubt that he could deliver in time though, because the saddle was waiting for them at Kansas City, and it was just as good as all of Mr Landis' saddles were.

They'd also picked up information packets from Uncle Sam in both Kansas City and St Louis, and they were going through these to get an understanding of what they were up against. It appeared that they'd be dealing with Confederate political wrangling, some major criminal groups (this 'Mafia' that Jane had mentioned), and something to do with Army corruption down there. That last element may have been why Uncle Sam had sent a frigate with a company of Marines to support them, rather than calling on the Army for the job.

Chuck was getting memories of quite a few things coming up as he was going through the information packets, and was filling page after page with the notes he was making (that was another advantage of the Hotel cars, the removable tables gave him a nice, solid desk surface to work on).

Jane spent much of her free time on the train in the kitchen with Adele. Originally she was working to get back the Creole patois that she'd lost so much of over the last ten years back, but the more they talked, the more they discovered they had in common. They were both Creole girls born into slavery down on the Gulf Coast who had been made to learn how to dress, talk and act like ladies to please those who owned them, though Jane had had the worst of it in the brothel. Jane could see how easily Adele could have ended up in the same position she had, and was so happy that she had not. She also enjoyed sampling Adele's cooking though, because she rivalled Maria in the kitchen, privately Jane thought that she might be even better.

They turned south at St Louis, still pushing the pace as much as they could, even though they knew that Chuck was dreading their arrival in New Orleans. From the time they turned south, he kept repeating his admonitions that no-one was to go anywhere alone once they got to New Orleans over and over again.

Half of the the troopers were having trouble accepting what had happened to Chuck, so they were wondering just how real this bogeyman of his was. It was only the fact that the other people in charge were obviously taking it seriously that made them believe that there might be something to what he was saying. And of course, Jane didn't know anything about this, so she was wondering about Chuck's sanity.

When they reached New Orleans, Chuck thanked all the staff left on the train as he handed out his usual generous tips, just as he'd been thanking and tipping the engineers and firemen as they finished their sections and handed over to the ones who knew the next section. As usual, Otis was sad to see 'his' folk go again, as they didn't know when they'd be heading back on the rails and no other passengers were like these folk.

In New Orleans, they were all booked into the St Charles, and looking at the rooms they had, Jane thought that by this standard, the Pullman cars _were_ just 'comfortable enough'. She was fast coming to realise that these people were whatever it was that you call people who are beyond 'rich', because she'd seen that none of this was being paid for by the government, they were paying for all of it themselves.

Put up over forty people in the most expensive hotel in New Orleans, private charter a fast steamer to get their people and mules to San Francisco quicker and then charter a private luxury train, nothing but the best, to transport them and their mules across the country as fast as possible, none of this was a problem for them. These weren't the things that 'normal' rich people could do, it was the sort of thing that only the Stanfords, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and their like did and somehow Sarah, the little girl she'd looked after to keep her safe while her shiftless father was running around town, was part of that world now. She'd wondered when Chuck hadn't turned a hair at handing over that much money to get the rancho, but now she saw that it was nothing to them.

When they were settled into the St Charles, Chuck sat Jane (or rather Jeanne, now that they were back in New Orleans and she was booked into the hotel as Jeanne Bellamy) down and made her confirm that she was going to honour her promise, and never go anywhere without guards? Jeanne reiterated the promise she'd made to Sarah before they'd left Los Angeles, that she would do as he said while they were in New Orleans, and wouldn't try to slip away from those protecting her.

Tom assigned Ben and two of the troopers to go with Jeanne as she tried to track down anyone in 'the Family', their first destination was the French Quarter. The Quarter had changed in the past ten years, but if her people were to be found, it was still the place to look.

Ellie also wanted to check out their old house and see how much the French Quarter had changed, but she knew that Chuck was worrying about the Daemon and their operation down here, so she decided to wait until he told her it was safe so they could do it together.

* * *

After several days without seeing any sign of anyone in the Family, Jeanne was getting frustrated, but then she found another reason to be amazed with Elana's man, because she received a note at the hotel from one of the Family. She hadn't even known that they'd booked her in separately from the Barton group booking as Jeanne Bellamy, but when she got the note from Andre she realised that Chuck must have done that just for this very reason, to make it easier for the family to find her when she started poking about.

When she received the note, she rushed in to excitedly embrace and kiss Chuck's face for what he'd done. In response to Sarah's " _What are you doing Tante_ _Jeanne_ _?"_ in rapid fire French, she just handed her the note.

Sarah was elated when she read it, because she'd loved Oncle Andre, but then she stopped and asked. "But how….?"

When Jeanne nodded at Chuck, Sarah realised what Chuck had done and why Tante Jeanne had rushed in to kiss him like that. With that she crossed the room to kiss him, whispering. "Merci mon amour"

The rules hadn't changed, so Ben and the two troopers escorted Jeanne to her rendezvous with Andre.

Andre questioned the men's presence, but accepted it when she said that they'd been sent along for her protection. He was still obviously worried about them though, so she explained that they'd been sent by Elana's man to ensure that she stayed safe.

It had been over ten years since Sarah had disappeared, so the name didn't register with Andre at first, and Jeanne clarified. "Little Elana, Jacques' girl? She's all grown up now and married, though she changed her name to Sarah Walker after she left here."

Andre was excited that Elana was back, and safe, and they talked about her for a while, but then he remembered something and started laughing uproariously.

Jeanne waited for him to explain what was so funny, and when he didn't, she snapped at him to do so. Andre wiped the tears of laughter away and apologised, saying.

"I am sorry mon cher, but Sarah Walker is Elana's _real_ name! Jacques got drunk one night and told me the whole story, how he'd arrived in the New World as a babe, Joseph Walker, in St John up in Canada, how he'd stowed away on a ship when he was about eighteen because he was on the run from the law, jumping ship over in Mobile and meeting a pretty blonde girl called Emma, who he got into trouble."

"She must have meant something to him though because he married her before their child was born, Sarah Lisa Walker. Of course, Jacques being Jacques, he couldn't keep to the straight and narrow for long so they were always moving about, on the run from the law or people he'd crossed. Sadly, Emma wasn't robust enough for that life, her health was failing after Sarah was born, or perhaps even before, and she died of consumption when Sarah was seven, apparently. After that, Jacques kept moving with Sarah, barely keeping one step ahead of those who were chasing him, never using their real names, and never using the same names in any two towns."

"As you know, Sarah was about seven when they first came to New Orleans and we met our little angel, as Elana and, well you know the rest of the story. How many times we had to tell Jacques to leave because he was jeopardising everyone's safety and livelihood, and how much it pained us all to see _her_ go each time, no matter how glad we were to see the back of Jacques."

Jeanne nodded. "That is actually why I'm here Andre, you _MUST_ tell Elana what you have just told me, but I convinced them to bring me along with them on this trip so that I could find out what happened to everyone. The only one that I have been in contact with is Henri, and he has been run out of town by this Mafia every time he came down here to try and find you. Who survived Jacques' betrayal?"

A look of sorrow crossed Andre's face as he told her the thankfully short list of five who had been caught and killed when Jacques had turned them in in an attempt to save himself, as the rest of them had had enough warning to either bolt as she and Henri had, or go to ground somewhere that they couldn't be found.

He spent the next hour or so, telling her where the last of the Family were, and what they were doing now. While she wept for the ones who had died, Jeanne was overjoyed that most of them had survived, and that over half of the Family were still in New Orleans and doing well.

When Andre finished telling her about the Family, Jeanne embraced him and thanked him, then grabbed his hand and said. "Now, you must come and tell Sarah her story!"

Andre resisted, dropping his voice as he said, in French in hope that Ben and the troopers didn't speak it, " _No!_ _T_ _hese men, they are soldiers. I cannot go into their lair, if I do, I will never leave._ "

Jeanne shook her head, responding in the same language. " _No Andre, you will be safe, they are here to root out some plot against the government, and also to see if anything can be done about this Mafia. In fact, if you can assist Charles, that is Sarah's husband, in locating these people, I'm sure he will be grateful, but he would_ _never_ _harm Sarah's Oncle Andre, I swear it!_ "

He looked sceptical, but also pleased. "Oncle Andre, she still calls me that?"

"Oui, she did when I showed her your note."

He looked at her thoughtfully, then turned to Ben, as he was obviously the most senior of the three men with her. "If I come with you to talk to Sarah, will I be allowed to leave?"

Ben gave him a measured look. "Yes Monsieur, if Missus Bentley..."

Andre looked at Jeanne in confusion, and she quickly explained that that was the name she'd been using for the past ten years, Jane Bentley. He nodded and turned back to Ben with a raised eyebrow.

Ben smiled and went on. "If Missus Bentley has promised you safe passage, you'll have it, and what's more there's none of us who'd ever want to upset Mrs Barton, and we have seen what you mean to her."

Andre raised an eyebrow at Jeanne again. "That is Sarah, Charles is Colonel Barton at the moment."

At that Andre looked shocked, asking. "How old is this man that our Elana married, to be a Colonel?"

Jeanne shook her head. "Charles is of an age with Elana, I was told that he received a brevet promotion to Colonel in the war."

Andre shook his head in wonder. "I must meet this husband of our Elana, he sounds extraordinary."

Ben snorted at that. "Oh yes Monsieur, our Colonel Barton is certainly that!"

Andre got his hat and cane and motioned them to the door, but Jeanne stopped him to tell him in French. _"_ _A_ _ndre, do not say anything to upset Elana, I did something very wrong to get them to bring me here.."_

He looked at her, waiting. _"I used what Jacques did to make_ _Elana_ _feel guilty enough to b_ _r_ _ing me along."_

Andre was outraged " _NO_ _N_ _!_ "

She nodded sadly "Yes, I regretted it as soon as I did it, but once it was out there was no taking it back. But the point is, Elana's Charles is a sweet and kind man, but he told me if I ever did anything else to hurt Elana, he'd throw me off the train in the middle of the plains, and his sister assured me that he was quite serious, so do not intentionally upset Elana or you may see a side of her husband that you do not like."

He nodded, looking at her with a concerned and disappointed expression, but he offered her his arm and led them out of his house, with Ben and the troopers following.


	7. Facing Your Daemons

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

When they arrived at the St Charles, Andre looked at Jeanne and raised his eyebrow, she nodded, and said. "Oui, money is nothing to them. We came here on chartered steamer and a private train made up of the newest and biggest Pullman cars and enough of those horse cars that the expensive race horses are carried in to take fifty mounts, but they act just like ordinary people, tres bizarre"

They went up to the Barton suite and were let in by the guards at the door. As soon as Sarah saw Andre she cried out "Oncle Andre!" and raced across the room to embrace him.

Andre saw a very tall young man across the room watching them with a fond smile, and he knew that this must be Charles. Indeed, the young man came over to greet him in French, sounding just like a boy from the French Quarter, when Sarah released him.

Most of the people in the room nodded a greeting to him, but one of the women looked vaguely familiar. A name finally came to him from the depths of his memories and Andre said "Eleanor Bartowski?" half musing, half asking, but the woman looked up with a surprised look on her face. "Oui?"

A quick discussion confirmed that this was indeed the daughter of the engineer who had lived here in the French Quarter until he and his family disappeared in the war.

When Andre asked what had happened to them, Ellie waved at Chuck, saying. "We had to go find my brother, because he ran away to the fight slavery before the war."

Andre turned to stare at him. "Non! This is Charles, the boy who was always building something?"

Chuck nodded ruefully. "Oui."

Sarah laughed at that, and Andre was reminded of how that laugh had warmed their hearts when she was a girl.

Then Andre said without thinking "I do not think you would have been more than ten or eleven when I last saw you. Your parents quite rightly kept you away from the type of people I associated with and I wasn't out and about for some time. I stayed in hiding for a long time after…."

He stopped as he saw Sarah's face fall. He tried to apologise, but she waved that away, asking him about the rest of the Family. Andre saw her grip on Chuck's hand tightening when he told her about the ones who'd been captured and killed after her father gave them up, but Jeanne's warning notwithstanding he was going to tell her the truth, he loved and cared for her too much to do anything else.

Andre watched Chuck through the discussion, and saw the pain in his eyes when heard of the things that had happened to the members of the Family. It was hard to see this man as a military figure, so eventually he asked. "Pardon me for asking Charles, but how did you get to be a Colonel at your age?"

Chuck waved that off, saying that he wasn't really an officer, he'd just been rewarded at the end of the war. That made Ellie retort when some of the older men, who obviously _were_ military men from their bearing, snorted. "Chuck, you know full well that you received a field commission in the Engineers for what you did in sixty three and had already been recommended for promotion to Major at the start of sixty five for your other actions. And you _know_ what you did to finish the war as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Engineers and a Brevet Colonel in the Regular Army!"

Tom weighed into the story at that point. "Yes, as far as not really being an officer goes, need I remind you who it was who organised what was left of our company after I and the rest of the officers were shot and half of the men wiped out into enough of a fighting unit to effectively hold off a short battalion of Confederate riflemen _and_ the Bear until the Bear finally managed to stop you getting back up? You! You _earne_ d those promotions Chuck, and your Medal of Honor too!"

He turned to Andre. "If that were not enough Sir, Chuck was just sixteen when he was made a Brevet Colonel and won that medal for his actions, as he had changed his name and increased his age before he enlisted."to use what was left to update an older carriage,

Andre looked wide eyed at Sarah, and she smiled proudly as she nodded.

He didn't know what he was getting into next. "But how did you manage to survive being targeted by the Bear, all the stories we heard in the war said that he was a killing machine who never failed?"

You don't get to be a good conman by being unobservant, so Andre caught all of the winces that his question generated, but he winced himself as Ellie answered.

"He almost _didn't_ survive, the Bear shot him _eight times_ and it was months before we knew whether he'd live or die!"

Ellie caught herself then and turned to John. "Oh I'm Sorry John! I didn't mean to bring that up again."

Andre was looking around in confusion, so Tom explained. "The Bear didn't kill all of his targets Sir, I survived as well, as did some of the others, but the amazing thing was that Chuck just kept getting up. He got back up five times, and kept making John put him down again until he put two more shots into him to keep him down the sixth time."

His eyes widened as he realised what he'd just said, and he murmured "Sorry John" before nodding to the wide eyed Andre. "Yes Sir, John was the Bear."

Andre turned to this John, getting out "Sacré bleu, pardon Monsieur..." before the man (who always seemed to be turned away from him) responded, assuring him not to worry about it in French, but he was _also_ speaking like a native of New Orleans.

Andre eyes widened yet again when he heard that voice as he realised that the man _was_ a native of New Orleans, because he knew that voice very well, even if he hadn't heard it in over fifteen years. But he'd never thought to hear it again because he was supposed to be dead!

He almost whispered. "Alexandre? Alexandre Coburn, is that you?"

He heard the man swear under his breath before he turned to face him and quietly said. "Oui, Oncle Andre."

At that, Chuck burst out laughing. Everyone turned to look at him, and he held up his hands in placation, saying. "Pardon. It's just that we don't seem to be able to go anywhere without finding someone we know or are related to. I'm sure we could go into the mountains of Siam and find some long lost cousin there, waiting for us."

He looked at John. "John?"

John nodded resignedly and made the necessary introductions. "This is my uncle, Andre Dédé. Oncle Andre is my mother's younger brother, and he was the black sheep of the family until I came along."

Andre shook his head. "Please! I am _still_ the black sheep of the family! Alexandre, you were a hero before the war, and apparently during and after the war as well, while I am merely a con artist."

Sarah smiled gratefully at him for that, then her smile turned mischievous. "Oncle Andre, do you know that you have a great niece?"

He looked from her, to John. "Non? What is Sarah talking about Alexandre?"

John glared at Sarah and then responded to Andre. "Oui Oncle Andre, I have a daughter. I only found out about her recently, at the same time as we ran into Jeanne in California actually. It's a long story, but she's with her mother up in Connecticut."

"Well I want to hear all about her, but that can wait… No, her name. Tell me, what is her name?"

"Alexandra Joan Coburn."

Andre raised an eyebrow at that with a smile. "There's obviously a story in that, but for the moment..."

Jeanne cut in at that point to say that Oncle Andre had something to tell Sarah about her family.

Sarah tensed up, as did Chuck, but Jeanne quickly assured them that it was nothing bad, just something her father had told Andre about their past one night when he was drunk, and she thought that Sarah should know.

Sarah looked at Andre and he smiled reassuringly as he nodded, so she nodded hesitantly and led them to the sitting area. When they were settled, Andre started with. "This came from your Tante Jeanne telling me that you started using the name Sarah Walker after you left here."

Sarah nodded, saying "Oui. I thought that I needed to separate myself from any name that everyone knew me by after my father got himself hung, and that was a name that he and Mama had only used for me when I was little."

She stopped when Andre shook his head, looking delighted. "Non mon cher, that is your _real_ name!"

She looked at him, confused. "What? What do you mean by that?"

"Your father told me that he'd arrived in the new world, in St John up in Canada, in thirty three as little more than a babe, and his name was Joseph Walker. He was obviously always the same way he was here, though, because when he was eighteen he had to stow away on a ship leaving St John because the authorities were after him."

"He jumped ship over in Mobile and met your mother, Emma, getting her in trouble. He must have truly cared for her though because he married her so you were born legitimate, as Sarah Lisa Walker. Your mother wasn't robust, as you know, and she died when you were seven but you are, or at least were, really Sarah Walker!"

Sarah turned to look at Chuck in wonder, and their smiles lit up the room, then she turned back to embrace Andre with shining eyes and spoke in a voice full of emotion. "Merci Oncle Andre."

Andre was blinking away tears himself as he finished the embrace and turned to Chuck. "Now Charles, Jeanne mentioned that I might be able to help you find the ones that you are looking for here, and now that we know we are family I feel honour bound to do so. Would you do me the honour of allowing me to assist you?"

Chuck looked quickly at Sarah and John and they nodded, so he turned to Andre and explained what they were looking for. Andre spent the rest of the day with them, and he directed them to a number of areas that they were likely to find what they were interested in, and who they should talk to to get more information.

Andre had made another gaffe later, as looking around, he'd asked Chuck where his parents were? (Their children were here, why weren't they?)

Half of the faces in the room fell at that, and eventually Chuck said. "Mama and Papa are gone, they were murdered over a year ago."

Once again, Andre tried to apologise but once it was out, it couldn't be taken back.

* * *

The next day, Jeanne went with her escorts again to Andre's, and he took her to see the other members of the Family (along with her escorts). While they were doing that, the team started following up the leads that Andre had helped them with.

Down at the docks, Chuck spotted someone that his acquired memories told him was a senior member of the Culper Ring _and_ a Secret Service Agent, Clyde Decker, but he was supposed to be in New York, not here. From the people he was talking to though, he was obviously involved with this Mafia crime organisation.

Decker left not long after they arrived and Chuck signalled to Tom, holding up four fingers and pointing at Decker. Tom nodded, and signalled four troopers to follow the man, working in pairs and trading off to make it harder to spot them. At the same time, another two troopers were sent off to wire Washington to determine whether Decker was down here on Secret Service business.

Just after Decker and his followers had left the docks there was an almighty crash over near the Mafia's storehouse, so they joined the general exodus to see what had happened. It turned out that someone had been unloading a lovely, brand new landau off a ship in front of the Mafia storehouse, but they had dropped it, shattering the wheels and destroying the undercarriage.

At first look, the lovely carriage appeared to be completely destroyed, which was a shame as it was a nice close coupled Sefton Landau, much like the one they'd had made for Kathleen and Alex. When Chuck had a closer look though, he realised that the bodywork appeared undamaged, as did the tops and interior, so it looked as though the only things that had been damaged were what was attached to the underside of the carriage, and that have him an idea.

This was to see whether professing an interest in purchasing the remains of the carriage could get them access to the Mafia's storehouse to conduct the requisite negotiations so they could look around. The fact was, he _was_ quite interested in obtaining the landau, as he was thinking that it would do quite nicely for the project he was working on with Scottie, but accessing the storehouse was the first priority.

To that end, Chuck slipped into the role of a rich, arrogant toff as he loudly asked where the owner of this pile of kindling could be found. At first they were going to ignore him, but then they took in the guards and attendants that this man had and decided that he could be important, so they directed him to the Mafia storehouse.

One of the men went with them to show them the way, as well as to tell the boss what had just happened to his new carriage.

The large Italian man that they were taken to see looked fit to explode when he was told the fate of his brand new carriage. When Chuck offered to buy the remains, he turned back to the man who'd brought them in and asked about the damage. The man told him that it had been totally destroyed when it was dropped, and that it was spread halfway across the docks.

At that the Italian got up and lumbered to the door of the storehouse to see the damage himself.

When he saw that his man was apparently correct he turned to look at Chuck suspiciously and ask why he would be interested in the remains when it was in this state.

Chuck shrugged, feigning disinterest and saying that it seemed a shame for the carriage to be a complete waste and he had been thinking that it may be possible to use the seats and such to update one of his older, rattier carriages to use it for his less important guests. With that he gave another shrug and turned to walk away but the Italian stopped him.

He had accepted that explanation as it seemed plausible and what's more thought it may give him a chance to recover _something_ from this mess (when he found out who was responsible for this they would pay! ), so he dragged Chuck back inside to haggle over what Chuck was prepared to pay for the remains (with Sarah at Chuck's side, giving him signals when she saw the Italian's tells).

No-one turned a hair when the others came back in with Chuck, as anyone rich would have staff and guards with him all the time and the big man was obviously family of some sort from the comments he was making about Chuck wasting family money on harebrained notions like this. The fact that most of them didn't stay with Chuck while he haggled and wandered off a ways didn't attract much attention either, as the bosses never appreciated those who worked for them hanging around watching them.

As a result, in the course of nearly half an hour of haggling where Chuck let himself be slowly talked up to $50 for the remains of the carriage (rather more than a basic buggy cost up north), John and the troopers managed to see much of what was in the storehouse. When he thought that they'd seen as much as they could, John signalled Sarah who in turn signalled Chuck so he wound up the haggling and handed over the money. As soon as he got the bill of sale they left, leaving behind a Mafia boss who was happy that he'd recovered something from the disaster, and that he'd talked the boy up that far for something that he was unlikely to be able to use for another carriage.

Meanwhile, outside the storehouse, Tom had sent a couple of troopers off to organise for a carter with a dray to haul the broken carriage back to the hotel (with what they were getting from a party the size of the Barton party, the hotel was well motivated to pander to their wishes, so if they wanted to keep a broken carriage in a corner of the hotel's storage area while they were there, the hotel management would be happy to agree) and a sheet of canvas and ropes to keep it together when it was tied down as he knew that the sale was a foregone conclusion.

When Chuck walked out and waved the bill of sale, Tom laughed and signalled the troopers to bring up the dray. They had enough men there to get the carriage onto the dray, so with Chuck directing them they set some planks against one side of the dray and used them to skid the carriage up onto it. Once it was sitting safe on the dray, the men scurried around, picking up all the pieces and tossing them onto the dray while the canvas was tossed over the carriage and lashed down.

At the hotel, as expected the management fell over themselves to assure Chuck that he was welcome to store anything he liked there and the carters took the dray around to the loading bay, then watched as the troopers skidded the carriage off the dray onto the loading dock, taking off as soon as they were paid.

Given that the storage area was deserted, and further away from prying ears than their rooms may be, they discussed what everyone had sighted in the storehouse while Chuck started removing the broken parts from the carriage (with help from the men where necessary). Of course, being Chuck, he had paper and pencils beside him to scribble notes whenever anyone said anything of note, or something said triggered a memory.

The picture that emerged from their observations meant that they were going to have to go back to that storehouse to take a closer look at some of the things they'd seen, and of course it would have to be at night when the regular occupants weren't there. As luck would have it there was a full moon that night, which made it fairly obvious when they'd be going.

About halfway through, the troopers who had been following Decker returned with interesting news. Decker was apparently the, or at least a, go-between linking the Mafia to the political issues that were going on here, because he'd gone straight from the Mafia storehouse to the home of the senior politician who was suspected of being the driving force behind the political wrangling going on down here. They also brought a telegram that they'd picked up at the front desk from Roan Montgomery, this confirmed that Clyde Decker was most certainly _not_ down there on Secret Service business, because as Chuck's memories had told him, he was supposed to be in New York! Roan also advised that there were no Secret Service operations under way in New Orleans other than their own, so anyone else they found down there was also off the reservation.

By the time they'd finished discussing everything, Chuck and the others had unbolted all the parts that were damaged, or were being removed for transport. Those parts that could be used, or at least used as templates to design their replacements, were wrapped up in canvas and stored on the floor beside the carriage while the remaining debris was cleared away.

Once that was done the carriage body was again swaddled in canvas and lashed tight, then they moved it off into a corner where it wouldn't be disturbed until they departed. The men noted that it was a lot lighter and easier to move about this way, and once they'd moved the carriage body, they moved the rest of the parts over as well, pushing them under the ends of the carriage body.

* * *

That done, they went upstairs to organise their little moonlight jaunt. They'd be taking similar weapons to what they'd taken on the Tong raid, as they needed to be as quiet as possible, though they also carried Chuck's LeMat shotguns and their repeaters in case it ended in a fight.

When they got to the storehouse, Sarah picked the lock on the door but John was the first to enter, with a small detachment of troopers on his heels. They moved quickly once they were inside, because it would make things a lot easier if they could check out what they came here to see and then get out, leaving everything the way it had been before they came without anyone knowing naught about their visit.

Alas, as was all too common with many plans, that was not to be, as the first men to delve into the depths of the storehouse were coshed as soon as they got out of sight of the others. The second one did manage to cry out though, so they were alerted to the fact that there was danger awaiting them.

Once their presence had been exposed, the Mafia's forces unshuttered their lanterns so that they could better see what to shoot at (enough of the moonlight filtered into the storehouse to see where you were going, but for most shooters that wasn't enough for good aiming). Of course, that identified the Mafia men's locations to them, and the troopers began firing.

Chuck had wanted to Sarah to be at his side while they were in there, but had had to concede that they could do more if they each took a team and a separate sector of the storehouse. Accepting this didn't mean that he liked it at all though, so he was constantly looking over to confirm that she was OK when the fighting started.

That was how he saw Decker suddenly turn up in front of her. What Chuck couldn't understand was why Sarah seemed to be frozen, not doing anything, and then he realised what he was seeing.

John looked over when he heard an anguished scream of " _ **NO!**_ " from Chuck, only to see him jump up and race right through the middle of the battle, he swore and barked out orders for everyone to take out anyone targeting Chuck.

Chuck had felt that there was something familiar, something not right, about Decker when he'd seen him earlier that day, but he hadn't been able to identify it until he realised why Sarah wasn't moving. She wasn't moving because she was being mesmerised by Decker, a Daemon, just as he had been by the Daemon who'd killed his parents. That was when he screamed and jumped up to race across the storehouse to stop it, praying that he would reach her in time.

The Daemon in Decker's body could feel the life force coursing through this one, and it was surprised by how much she was resisting its control. It smiled as it redoubled its efforts, the force was strong in this one but it was stronger. It had acquired other tastes from the current host though, so it was trying to carefully balance how much will it stripped from her. It wanted her to still have enough will left to fight as it took her, before it sucked everything out of her, because she was beautiful and its host desired her. Now that it had feasted on the satisfaction its host gained from taking prey in this way, it relished it.

It had recognised the strength of the life force in Decker when it hunted him about a month and a half before. As it was sucking the life force and memories from him though, it had recognised that Decker wielded a great deal of power and influence, and had even more powerful connections. When it had considered the benefits that it could gain from using Decker's power and connections, it had reversed the process, taking him over and then transferring itself into him rather than draining him, and it had been operating as him since then, manipulating all those around him.

Decker had had such a strong force of will that some of his tastes and desires, such as forcefully taking women against their will that way, had imprinted themselves upon the Daemon, and it was gaining enjoyment from them. These simple pleasures were nothing when compared to the joy of feeling the despair as it slowly sucked every part of the prey's being from them, of course, but they were an enjoyable diversion nonetheless.

This woman was putting up more of a fight than the Daemon would have believed possible so it was concentrating on her to the exclusion of everything else, and that was why it didn't note Chuck's desperate charge through the middle of the battle.

Chuck was running as hard as he could, ignoring everything around him, that was why he missed their people desperately firing at anyone pointing a gun at him. The only thing that he let slow him down at all was the break in step as he ripped one of his cutlasses from the scabbard strapped to his back.

The Daemon still had its whole attention on Sarah when Chuck reached them, so didn't note his presence until his cutlass had plunged into Decker's side and ripped up through his heart. As it hadn't seen this attack coming, it had no chance to stop it or transfer itself to the woman's body, so it could do no more than expire, and all of _its_ memories and energy were released into the woman through the link that had been opened. Without realising it, Chuck twisted the blade to tear its heart apart exactly as he had with the Daemon who killed his parents.

Decker's body remained upright for another twenty seconds or so, and then collapsed to the floor, and Sarah collapsed with it. Chuck dropped to Sarah's side and took her in his arms, trying to wake her, but while she felt as though she was burning up with fever, she lay in his arms as if she were dead.

Chuck didn't know how long he sat there on the floor with Sarah in his arms, but the next thing he knew John was at his side, having just slapped him across the face almost hard enough to take his head off, and he realised that he'd been shouting at him for at least five minutes. He also realised that the sounds of battle had stopped.

John had checked Sarah as best he could with Chuck wrapped protectively around her, and he shook Chuck to get his attention. "Chuck! She's alive, but we need to get her back to the Hotel so that Ellie can find out what's wrong with her! Here, let me take her."

Chuck shouted " _NO!_ " and struggled to his feet with Sarah in his arms, letting John lead him out of storehouse to the wagon outside. They took her back to their suite at the hotel, and John went to get Ellie while Chuck removed Sarah's clothes. Ellie knew that something was seriously wrong here, as Chuck wouldn't leave Sarah's side while she was examining her. Any other time he would have left to respect Sarah's privacy under these circumstances, even though as her husband he'd seen her naked many times.

When Ellie had finished her examination, she turned to Chuck and told him that aside from the raging fever that she couldn't explain and the fact that Sarah's heart was hammering as if she was running for her life, she seemed fine. Then she looked at him and asked "What happened?"

He answered without looking away from Sarah as he held her hand. "It was the Daemon, she encountered it on the other side of the storehouse from me, I tried desperately to get to her in time. I killed it, but I don't know whether it's still her in there, or I was too late."

Ellie exclaimed "Oh Chuck no!", moving to hold him as he stood there holding his wife's hand, to all appearances a broken man, which was indeed what he would be if Sarah didn't survive as herself.

They stood there like that for some time, and then Sarah suddenly drew a great breath and sat up, eyes wide with terror. Chuck gave a happy cry and leapt to embrace her, uncaring of the vice-like grip that she had on his shoulders as she clung to him hard enough to leave serious bruising for days, then she suddenly pushed him away with enough force to make him stumble back as she twisted over the side of the bed to vomit on the floor.

When she'd emptied her stomach, she pushed herself up again and stared at him. "How do you do it? How do you live with this in your head Chuck? What it had done, what it wanted to do to _me_ , it's too much!"

Chuck gave a happy laugh and grabbed her to kiss her, she clung to him as she kissed him back and then stiffened and pulled back. "Chuck no! I just vomited!"

He laughed again. "I don't care! I thought I'd lost you and nothing matters now that I've found that I haven't!"

She relaxed into his embrace and rested her head on his shoulder, starting to shake now that what had happened sank in.

* * *

Ellie smiled at them and then went outside to tell the others that Sarah was OK. She asked Tom to send someone down to get a maid to come and clean up the vomit, and then took core group aside and lowered her voice. "It was the Daemon, Chuck killed it before it took her essence and just as it happened with him, what was in the Daemon flowed into her as it died."

When they heard that, Hattie and John broke away to rush into the room to see for themselves that Sarah was OK. As Sarah and Hattie were crying in each other's arms, John put his hand on Chuck's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "So that's why you raced through the middle of that battle like a madman, I thought you'd totally taken leave of your senses."

Chuck nodded numbly. "I thought I'd lost her John. I wouldn't have been able to go on without her."

John nodded. "It's a pity that we lost what Decker knew, but having Sarah safe is more important."

Chuck surprised him with a smile at that. "You really don't understand how this works, do you John?"

"What do you mean?"

"We haven't lost anything. Sarah knows everything that Decker, and all the rest of its victims knew. I expect it will take her a while to sort things out in her head so she can find them, I know it did me, but she has all of it in her head now."

John shook his head in wonder, and was starting to tell him that Tom had had the men strip the bodies of any weapons, papers and anything of use to them and toss them into the river so they'd have no idea who was dead and who'd disappeared, adding that Tom had his cutlass, when the maid arrived to clean up the room so they had to put a hold on their conversation. By the time the maid had arrived, Hattie had helped Sarah into a nightgown, so Sarah climbed out of the bed and came over to where Chuck and John were standing, wrapping herself around Chuck, and in turn being wrapped in his arms.

This would be a trial, but it was one that they could get through together.

When the maid had finished her work and went to leave, Chuck tried to get to his money without disturbing Sarah, but John gently touched his arm to stop him, giving the woman a ten. She tried to give it back, saying that it was too much as that represented well over a month's wages to her, but he shook his head and closed her hand over it, thanking her as he led her to the door and let her out.

Chuck suggested that Sarah go back to bed but she resisted, saying that she had to get out of the room, so John went down to see whether there were enough kitchen staff left to make them a meal, and as there were, Sarah got dressed and they went down to the dining room. John, Hank, Bill and Ben left them there, as they had to go 'question' the ones they'd taken out of the storehouse alive, to see whether they could get anything of use from them.

The awkward silences at the table dragged on, as half of them seemed to be waiting for Sarah to break under the terrible load that had just been dumped onto her. As this was making Sarah uncomfortable, Chuck tried to get the attention off her and help them understand what Sarah was presumably going through by explaining what _he'd_ gone through when this had first come upon him.

When he started talking about some of the things he'd seen that had made him think that he'd lost his mind though, that triggered Sarah to talk about the similar things that she was seeing. As this seemed to be helping her rather more than troubling her they went into it in depth, discussing the shared memories that they had, and where they diverged.

Listening to what they were saying, the others were fascinated by what they were hearing, but at the same time wondered what bizarre world they'd fallen into, because most of what Chuck and Sarah were talking about shouldn't be possible, according to everything that they 'knew' from the world that they lived in.

The common beginning for both of their Daemons' memories on Earth (the other memories that they had seen from before that were even more bizarre) was in the land of the mountains of sand, Egypt as Chuck now knew it to be, over five millennia ago. They'd gone north, south, east or west at different times after that but they'd led similar lives, as nomadic killers who delighted in the kill, feeding off people wherever they went and taking over a new body whenever they needed to, or chose to as Sarah's Daemon had when it took over Decker.

They lingered over dinner for a couple of hours, until they realised that they were keeping these people there and as soon as they did so they promptly apologised and went back to Chuck and Sarah's suite. John and the others came back soon after they returned to the suite. Chuck looked a question at John, but he signalled that it could wait until tomorrow and Chuck nodded.

Ellie brought John and the others up to speed on what Chuck and Sarah had been discussing, adding happily that Sarah was obviously feeling better due to those discussions, and John smiled at that. Sarah went to him and embraced him, because she knew that he'd been worried about her, not as much as Chuck to be sure, but definitely at least as much as Ellie and the others, because he'd been watching over her for ten years now and she knew he cared about her. He kissed her on the forehead and she smiled at him, before going back to the couch where she'd been sitting with Chuck.

They talked for a while longer yet, and through these talks Sarah was managing to accept and assimilate what she'd acquired far faster than Chuck had, all alone with this and doubting his sanity or even humanity as he tried to face it.

* * *

When they rose the next morning, aside from her head pounding, Sarah was feeling relatively right with the world. She wasn't about to ignore Chuck's warnings about how the memories would hit her when she went out in public and started seeing people (especially as her Daemon had been operating in New Orleans for a long time, so she'd have the memories of hundreds, if not thousands, of local people inside of her), but she was certain that, with Chuck at her side and the rest of the family at her back, she could deal with this.

There _was_ one task that she needed to get out of the way quickly though, and that was to write out the authorities (in Decker's hand) for the men to go and settle up Decker's bill and clean out his rooms, just as Chuck had done with his own Daemon's last host. Decker had been active and important in many schemes down there, and therefore the people he was working with would be looking for him quite soon. This meant that it was imperative that they got Decker's, or more to the point the Daemon's, things out of there before anyone else got to them.

They also wanted to set the scene to make it look like Decker had run off, to foster the belief that he was the one who had been behind what had led to the battle at the storehouse, as that would hopefully prevent the Mafia, Culper Ring or anyone else from looking further afield for the culprit or culprits.

Jane didn't understand why that rule about not going anywhere at all by themselves that Chuck had been so adamant about was suddenly dropped, she didn't mind at all as it had been making things quite difficult for her. She still had someone go with her wherever she went for protection of course, but it was less restrictive than before.

When Chuck and Sarah went through her Daemon's trunks, as expected they found similar things to what they'd found in Chuck's Daemon's things, cash, gold and jewels, ancient manuscripts, rare instruments and weapons, treasures, and piles of ledgers that documented the fortunes that it had accumulated. Her Daemon apparently hadn't been as canny with money matters as his Daemon had been, though, as its fortune didn't seem to be as vast as Chuck's one's had been.

They discussed the fact that they'd need to get back to New York at some point, to put what they'd collected in their vault in Memphis House for safekeeping, and commence proceedings to get everything transferred over to Memphis Trading and their (as in the family's) names. The problem was that they couldn't see how they were going to get the time to do that.

They also realised that they'd have to tell Uncle Sam about what had happened without delay. Chuck thought of a subtle but simple signal that he alone should understand, and they sent Uncle Sam a coded telegraph to advise him that he could recall the frigate and the Marines, as they weren't needed any more. He got the point quick enough, immediately sending back a query as to their adversary's fate.

Their response of "Dead, but with Sarah" resulted in a firm order for them to return immediately with the frigate. They in turn understood _his_ underlying message, that he had to see her and assure himself that she was OK, if she had gone through the same as Chuck had.

 **A/N: If anyone's wondering about the focus on the shotguns and shot pistols, think of them as the 1870s equivalent of assault rifles and submachineguns. At the time, a double barrelled shotgun was the limit to that technology, so a fast firing 8 shot shotgun would have been devastating, but it would still be 3 ½ feet long. So, if someone then took that new devastating weapon and cut two feet off its length, they would have something that would change the face of close fighting, and he was trying to find ways to improve their ability to take on greater numbers.**

 **As for the Marines being able to recognise their potential use better, they would have been more used to fighting in closed spaces while other soldiers fought outside, so they were probably using cut-down shotguns already.**


	8. Plans For The Future

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

After some debate, it was decided that John, Mei, Rick and seven troopers (including Hank and Rick's three Marine sergeants) would accompany Sarah and Chuck on their trip to Washington, while Hattie and Tom would remain to oversee the investigations in New Orleans and Ellie, Andy, Adele and Jeanne would stay with them, along with the other twenty five troopers.

The surprise addition to the group going north on the frigate was Andre, as he'd wistfully mentioned that he would love to see his great niece one day when it John mentioned that he'd probably visit Kathleen and Alex in Connecticut while they were up there. When he said that, John thought about Alex and decided that it would be good for her to see what was left of his side of the family, so he asked Oncle Andre if he'd like to come along with them on the voyage north (Andre's response, of course, was an immediate and emphatic "Oui!").

Actually, John's father and two of his brothers were alive, but they personified everything wrong about the south and plantation owners to him, so he was perfectly content to remain dead to them. The last person in his immediate family who had meant anything to him was his mother, but she'd died while he was at West Point, and he hadn't been in contact with his father or brothers since then.

The day after Uncle Sam gave the order for them to come to Washington, the frigate was brought in so that they, the Daemon's trunks and the remains of the landau could be brought aboard. There were a number of officers who were ousted from their cabins for Sarah, Chuck and Mei, John, Andre and Rick and the troopers (with their guard duties they could share one cabin), but their passengers were more important. The ship's Captain had been surprised when they specifically asked for three of the junior officers' shared cabins together (plus exclusive use of a big enough storage locker close by), rather than senior officers' cabins, but his orders were to give them whatever they wanted, and he appreciated how this reduced the disruption to his crew as well so he'd had what they requested cleared out before they boarded.

The frigate steamed out of New Orleans' harbour soon after the party and their baggage came aboard, and they made very good time (the USS Florida was the fastest ship in the United States Navy, which was actually why she had been sitting in New York, because the old salts in the Navy had condemned her design as being too impractical for active duty due to her engines, boilers and coal stores taking up too much room in her hull, so she was being withheld from sea duty while they argued about her fate). The voyage down across the Gulf of Mexico, around the tip of Florida and up the coast to Norfolk before heading in to the Arsenal in Washington took her little more than three and a half days, which was an unheard of time for a voyage of over 1700 miles.

They thanked the Florida's Captain for an exciting voyage (though while no-one else was in earshot, he'd privately thanked _them_ for giving him the opportunity to really show what she could do for the first and probably only time, to prove it to the doubters), and took their leave of the Ship's and the Marines' officers before they were ferried to shore with their baggage (which was mainly the Daemon's trunks) and the landau body.

They were met at the Arsenal by the picked Army platoon that had been sent by Uncle Sam to escort them to the President's House. They and their baggage were loaded into two of Army's steam wagons, which were surrounded by their escorts all the way to the President's House. A small detail was left to await the steam dray that had been called to carry the landau.

Entering the President's House was familiar territory for all of them by now (except Andre). Hank and three of the troopers had been left with the wagons to guard their baggage, while Rick and the other three escorted Sarah, Chuck, John, Mei and Andre to the President's antechamber. Rick, the troopers and Andre waited in the antechamber while the others, as usual, were waved past everyone who'd been waiting in the antechamber.

Once inside, with the door shut, Uncle Sam rushed to Sarah to see for himself that she was OK, but she stopped him, taking him over to the peep hole to point out the three Culper Ring people in his antechamber. Uncle Sam looked at Chuck with a raised eyebrow, asking why Sarah had identified them but he hadn't, and Chuck shook his head, saying.

"This will probably be the way it is from here on in, Sarah will have memories that I won't and vice versa. And don't forget, not only are the memories that Sarah has more recent than the ones I acquired, Decker was higher in the Culper Ring organisation than anyone that I acquired from my Daemon."

Uncle Sam raised an eyebrow at what he'd said and Chuck grimaced, explaining that it was the only logical way they could think of to identify where something came from, and Uncle Sam nodded thoughtfully. With that, Uncle Sam went to his desk and whistled up his aide on the voice tube that had been put in in the past year, telling him to have the guards arrest the three that Sarah had identified. (Sarah, John and Chuck shared a smile at this, obviously the government's people weren't up to date on the type of equipment that was available. Sarah leant in and whispered to Chuck that one day he'd have to bring Uncle Sam to New York and let him see what a real modern office looked like.)

* * *

Once that was out of the way, Uncle Sam went to Sarah and embraced her, anxiously asking how she was and apologising for sending them down there, to cause this to happen. Sarah assured him that she was alright, that not only had Chuck saved her, he was helping her handle what it was like to have this in her head. She also pointed out that this wasn't all bad, yes, the memories of what the Daemon and some of its prey had done were horrific sometimes, but even so, the sights that she'd seen via the memories that she'd acquired were absolutely incredible.

When Uncle Sam had been relieved of at least part of his feelings of guilt, Chuck and Sarah launched into telling him what they'd discovered so far in New Orleans, noting how helpful John's Uncle Andre had been. That snippet of news got a surprised look from Uncle Sam and a glare from John, but he was respectful when he answered Uncle Sam's query.

"I saw no mention of an uncle in your records Marshal Ramsey, I thought it was just your father and brothers?"

"He's my mother's younger brother Mister President, he was the black sheep of the family and they struck him off of most of the family records after he went down a path that they regarded as having brought the family name into disrepute."

Sarah piped up at that point. "Oncle Andre was also one of the ones who looked out for me when I was growing up in New Orleans Uncle Sam." He quirked a smile at her to let her know that he'd gotten the message, Uncle Andre was one of the good guys and he was to leave him alone.

As the actual business at hand was out of the way, Sarah decided that this would be a good time to talk about where they were heading, laying out their plans for the rancho and the empire that they wanted to create to support themselves and the girls they'd rescued, and pointing out that everyone in the group had agreed that they wanted to be part of this, so ultimately they'd all be leaving the government's service.

She cut Uncle Sam off when he jumped in to say that they couldn't, their country needed them, to tell him what Chuck had proposed. They wouldn't be leaving straight away, but they'd be based in California and they wouldn't be on the road all the time, constantly running from one crisis to the next. They needed the time to prepare for a life for themselves after this.

She looked him in the eye as she said. "I believe that we've all earned that, Uncle Sam."

He deflated as he nodded. "Yes child, that you have. I'm sorry, it's just that you, all of you, have achieved so much that no-one else has been able to come close to. With you, we have a chance of winning against this Culper Ring and the rest of their ilk. Without you fighting that fight, I'm not sure what chance we have, but I doubt that it's much of one."

Chuck shot Sarah a look, and when she nodded barely perceptibly he turned to Uncle Sam. "Uncle Sam, as Sarah said, we aren't talking about leaving, not yet, we're only talking about establishing ourselves over there where we are planning to build a life for ourselves, and taking the time we need to do so. In fact I'll pledge to you to stay with this as long as you're here and you need us, and I believe that the others will as well."

He looked around the room and the rest of them nodded emphatically. Looking back at him, he added. "We can't speak on Hattie, Ellie, Tom, Andy, Rick or the platoon's behalf, but I believe that they will join us in this pledge as well. But please understand, this pledge is to you, personally, not the office. When you decide to step down we will go, and we'll need to have something official in place that will assure our right to do so when the time comes."

Uncle Sam nodded as he slumped in relief. "Yes, I understand that Son, I do, and I want you all to know how much I appreciate this. Facing the idea of trying to fight this war without you on our side, well I can tell you that that was a pretty frightening prospect!"

With that potential crisis averted, Uncle Sam said "Now, Aunt Julia won't forgive me if we don't have you over for dinner, I'll let her know..." but Sarah cut him off at that point.

"We'd love to Uncle Sam, but we have urgent things that we _need_ to get to in New York while we're up here, I expect that that will take us a week or so, and John and Oncle Andre, and I believe Mei?" (Mei glanced shyly at John and they nodded together) "want to visit Alex and Kathleen in Farmington while we're here, so they'll head straight on up there. I promise that we'll come to dinner on the way back, once we've done what we need to do, but this is really urgent!"

Uncle Sam nodded, but said. "I will hold you to that promise child, my life wouldn't be worth living if your Aunt Julia knew that you were in town and didn't come to visit, so I'll have to try to cover up the fact that you were here this time."

Sarah laughed at that, coming around the desk to hug him and kiss him on the cheek. "So devious Uncle Sam! Why you're just like a politician!"

He swatted at her with a laugh. "Well if I didn't have you making my life so difficult for me, I wouldn't need to be so devious!"

He looked more serious then. "So you three" (pointing to John, Mei and Andre) "are going on up to Farmington while the others are going to New York?" (they nodded) "and where are the rest of you staying in New York?"

Sarah looked at Chuck and at his nod said. "We have a place in New York Uncle Sam, it's at Memphis House".

Uncle Sam nodded, saying "I had thought that it was strange that you were all staying there for so long. OK, I'll get the bookings for all the tickets wired through so they're waiting for you."

Sarah smiled and said "Thank you Uncle Sam."

With that they all stood and made to leave, but Chuck stopped. "Mister... Uncle Sam" (changing when Uncle Sam gave him a look) "do you think you could you get something organised for us, please? There's a landau body coming in from the Arsenal when they organise a dray for it. Would it be possible for you to have someone ship it to the Paterson Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for us, please?"

Uncle Sam chuckled. "Only if you tell me what it's for."

Chuck grinned. "I've been working on a vapor carriage project with Scottie.."

At the look Uncle Sam gave him he clarified. "Commander Angus MacCallum, Paterson Company's Chief Engineer, you may remember him as Tom's Dad's ship's engineer?" Uncle Sam nodded to that.

"Anyway, we've been working on the design for a variation of a steam carriage that's driven by an advanced naphtha vapor engine we developed, he's using an old steam dray for the initial test platform, but when we used negotiating to acquire the remains of this landau as the excuse to get into the Mafia's storehouse and look around, I thought that as it's a very nice carriage that's complete from the undercarriage up, it would be perfect to use for the actual vapor carriage."

Uncle Sam looked at him for a bit, and then laughed. "Well, I can't claim to understand most of what you just said, but yes Charles, write down the address and I'll get it shipped to Paterson's"

Chuck smiled. "Thank you Uncle Sam, and quickly grabbed a pen and paper to write down the address and directions, which basically amounted to ' _HANDLE WITH CARE!_ '

With that, they said their goodbyes, but just as they were opening the door, Uncle Sam stopped them, saying that he'd like to meet this uncle of John's, but John put that off by pointing out that he'd have that opportunity when they came back through Washington, and he accepted that.

With that, they exited the office, and picking up the others in the antechamber they left the building. Hank, their troopers, their escort and the steam wagons were waiting for them as they exited the President's House and took them straight to the station. By the time they got to the station, as promised, Uncle Sam's aides had already secured their tickets (to Farmington for John, Mei and Andre and New York for the rest of them) on the next train, which was almost due to depart, so their baggage was loaded as they were hustled onto the train and away they went.

On the train, they explained what was happening to Rick, Hank, Andre and the troopers (other than the ones guarding their things in the baggage car). As expected, Rick, Hank and the troopers with them indicated that they were all for the undertaking that they'd made to Uncle Sam. When they arrived in New York, they said their goodbyes and John, Mei and Andre grabbed their bags to transfer to the Connecticut train while the others headed off to Memphis House.

* * *

Sarah and Chuck had most of their the time on the USS Florida going through the ledgers etc and writing up what had to be done for the transfers of any funds and assets from Sarah's Daemon (with Sarah writing out the authorities to transfer with the appropriate handwriting, signatures and any other authentication required). As soon as they arrived in the law offices (as Mister Walton and Mister Bowman), they called in Jim and the other lawyers and handed over what they had so far, to get them working on transferring everything. Once they'd handed over the first batch, they got to work on the rest.

They did have something else to do though, something that Sarah realised they should have done when they installed Harry Quinn as a junior partner, actually they should have done before they headed out west the first time. She sent Chuck back to the apartment and called Jim into the partner's office to tell him that he and the senior partners had agreed that it was time to reward him for looking after things in the firm while they were with off their clients and they wanted to offer him a junior partnership to make it official.

Jim of course accepted the partnership and was most appreciative, but asked why they were adding another junior partner so soon after Harry Quinn. Sarah had little trouble spinning an explanation that he could accept, that they had in fact been discussing his partnership for a while for the reasons he was told, but dealings with one of their major clients had resulted in Harry being brought in as a junior partner as a matter of urgency to seal a major deal (waving her hand at the door to imply that what they were now working on was part of this), so that had made it necessary to put aside what they were doing for Jim's partnership at the time.

That was something that Jim could accept, so they made it official and notified the rest of the staff that Mr Goodman was now a junior partner and in charge of the day to day dealings of the firm. It was decided that he'd keep his existing office as he was settled in there, and leave the partners' office for the other partners.

They knew that they couldn't get everything done in a week, so they'd flagged what they believed to be the highest value holdings and started with them, and were working their way down the list from there. Hopefully what would be left to be processed over time when they had to leave would only be enough to make people wealthy, rather than fabulously wealthy. At least they'd set up all the infrastructure and alliances needed to do this back when they processed Chuck's Daemon's fortune, so they were just sending the transactions out through their existing channels now.

The first day, once Sarah and Chuck were safely ensconced in the partners' office, Hank sent a few of the boys out to stock up the apartments with food and such for the week, because he knew how Sarah and Chuck were, they'd work through until all hours of the night without eating if they were concentrating. One of the troopers who'd come with them was one of the better cooks in the platoon (that was a factor in why he'd chosen Bobby-Joe to come along, really), so Bobby-Joe could make them something to eat when they wanted something, or Hank would take something down to them if they didn't have the sense to ask.

As expected, it was close to midnight by the time they came back up to the apartments, and they hadn't eaten much, so Hank had Bobby-Joe make something up for the two of them while Sarah slipped into a much needed bath to relax, and gave it to Chuck to take in to her when it was ready.

For the rest of the week, that was how it went, Chuck and Sarah would be up at first light and head down the law offices, work until late at night, go back upstairs and and Hank would organise meals for them if they hadn't eaten in a while.

When all the critical transfers were about done, they sent a telegram off to John to tell him that they'd be done in a day, so it was time to get back, organising their tickets and sending him the details.

Up in Farmington, they'd had a good week, and Alex was as excited to meet her Great Uncle as he was to meet her, if not more. Andre had charmed everyone in the household, for he was indeed a charming rogue, and they'd spent their time together telling each other stories of their lives.

Andre found it delicious, the idea that his Great Niece had been born in an Indian tribe and was also known as White Bird. He wouldn't dream of betraying Johnny's confidences (after the shock of seeing him alive, he'd remembered that his mother had been the first to call him that form of his name, which was why it meant so much to him), but he would dearly love to see the faces of Johnny's father and brothers, and his own family as well, if they heard that.

John also had a chance to quietly broach with Kathleen, the idea that they come to visit once the group was established in California, and perhaps consider moving over there when Alex had finished her education. Kathleen wasn't at all adverse to the idea (either of them), but they agreed not to mention this to Alex until things were more settled.

When word came through that it was time to go back they were all sad, as they'd enjoyed this visit so much, but what Kathleen did just before they left had John and Mei worried, as she asked to have a private word with Mei. Mei shared a worried look with John as she went with her, but she could never have expected what Kathleen had to say.

Once they were in the drawing room with the door closed, Kathleen turned to Mei and took her hands, saying.

"Mei… no, sorry. Mei-Chen, it has been a privilege to meet someone like you, and I'm so glad to have you, along with Sarah, Ellie and Hattie, to give Alex the example of what sort of woman she should aspire to be. There is something that I _MUST_ impress on you, though."

Mei tensed up as she looked Kathleen in the eye, and Kathleen continued. "Please don't let Johnny's past with me jeopardise his future with you! Johnny and I will always have our daughter to remind us of what we had, but that is his past. Alexandra will always be Johnny's daughter, but you and Johnny make each other happy, and I do hope that you can move forward and make a future together where you can both enjoy everything that you deserve."

With that Kathleen let go of Mei's hands and embraced her. They talked for a little while longer and then came out and John tensed when he saw that Mei had been crying, but she shook her head with a smile and went to him, stretching up on tip toe to kiss him on the cheek and whispering. "Everything is fine."

On the train back to New York, she told John and Andre what Kathleen had said, and Andre summed it up well when he said. "Johnny, you certainly have shown excellent taste when it comes to the ladies in your life, first Kathleen and now Mei, and you have created one just as wonderful in my Great Niece!"

He then turned to Mei and said. "I do hope mon cher, that you will heed Kathleen's advice, as I would be delighted and honoured to call you family!"

Mei smiled shyly and nodded at that, and they spent the rest of the trip to New York in a happy silence as they thought on this.

When they received notification that Alex and the others were on the train, Sarah and Chuck had arranged for tickets for them all on the first train to Washington after the train from Connecticut arrived, and they were all waiting for them at the station, ready to go. They only had one of the Daemon's trunks with them now, as that was enough to hold what they had left to work through along with a few of the more interesting pieces from her Daemon's collections of weapons and instruments.

They had also ordered one of Pullman's private cars, without a cook, for the day after they arrived in Washington (with just over a dozen of them, a Hotel car would have been more than they needed), so that once they'd caught up with Uncle Sam and Aunt Julia, they could head straight back to New Orleans.

They had a pleasant dinner with the first family, and Andre charmed them, just as he had everyone at Coburn House. The next morning they headed down to the station to board their Pullman car. It was a pleasant surprise to find that Pullman's had managed to get Otis allocated to their car in the little time they'd had.

When they got back to New Orleans, Chuck, Sarah and John explained what had happened with Uncle Sam, including the commitment that Chuck and the others had made Hattie, Tom and the others wholeheartedly agreed with that commitment.

* * *

With that out of the way, they caught up on the progress that had been made while they were up north. The Mafia seemed to have accepted the idea that most of their missing men had disappeared with Decker, and were gearing up for a war when he came back to take over their territory, as they expected The other elements also appeared to have accepted that Decker was playing his own game and had turned his back on them all.

In the meantime, the team had flagged a number of people and were tracking them, but the person of most interest was the woman who seemed to have stepped in to take over the role of Clyde Decker. The next day, Chuck and Sarah went with the team to see this woman, and when they did, Sarah started laughing quietly.

When the woman was out of earshot, Chuck asked what was so funny and Sarah kissed him, saying. "I'm beginning to see the benefit to having all this in my head my love, that woman is Zondra, Zondra Rizzo, a Secret Service Agent, we worked together in the past and we were friends, until that Culper Ring operation in New York." She stopped and sighed, and then continued.

"We had a traitor on the team, and all the evidence was pointing to Zondra. There were some things that she absolutely refused to answer, and we had a falling out because she believed that as her friend, I should trust her, while I felt that as my friend, there shouldn't be any secrets between us. Anyway, somehow she was cleared in the Secret Service hearings, but we never saw eye to eye again after that."

"The thing is, with Decker' memories, and what we know about Bruce Gordon, I now know that the traitor was actually Gordon."

Now that Chuck had managed to get a good look at Zondra's face, what Sarah was saying made him recall something from the memories he had. "Ah, I know what Zondra's secret was, she was trying to protect some of her cousins who were part of the Italian crime families in New York. She was trying to get them out before they got in too deep, but she hadn't managed to yet, so that was why she wouldn't talk. The story was in the memories that my Daemon had from in New York."

They talked briefly about what to do, then Chuck went after Zondra, knocking her out with a nerve strike so that they could take her back to Andre's storeroom, the one Alex had used the night they raided the Mafia storehouse.

When Zondra came to, she just had John, Tom, Hank and Bill in front of her, and she recognised John.

"Marshal Casey, what are you doing? You'll give me away, you have to let me go!"

She told him that she'd been put in place to act as a go between for the Mafia and the political groups down here so they could find out what they were up to, and who her boss was.

At that, Sarah snorted. "Oh, so _now_ you'll talk, why couldn't you do that back in new York?"

Zondra froze, trying to turn her head enough to see behind her, snarling as she did so. "Wiseman? What the hell are you doing here? Trying to screw things up for me again?"

Sarah strolled around to stand in front of Zondra, ignoring her as she talked to John and Tom. "We need to get word to Washington that Everett Sutherland is bad, so that Roan can limit the damage that he can do, and hopefully catch some of his connections. Tom, can you get one of your men to do that?"

Bill piped up with. "I can do that, if you code the message?"

Sarah nodded, looking over Zondra's head she asked "Chuck?" and Zondra heard a man say "I'm on it!" behind her.

Less than a minute later a tall, slender man walked last Zondra and handed the man who'd spoken a note.

The man nodded, saying "On it boss!", then caught himself and turned to Tom.

"With your permission, sir?" Tom gave a wry grin and waved him off.

Once Bill had left, Sarah turned to Zondra and addressed her. "Zondra, you've been duped, Roan Montgomery, who as you know is the Secret Service's Chief, has no knowledge of any Secret Service operations down here except for us."

Zondra glared at her. "I don't believe you, you're just trying to screw me over again, the way you tried to in New York!"

Sarah sighed in exasperation. "Will you believe Marshal Casey?" Zondra nodded tightly and Sarah turned to John.

"Uncle John, can you get her to see reason, please?"

He nodded in resignation and Sarah started to turn away, then stopped and stepped up in front of her.

"Zondra, I'm sorry that I didn't trust you enough to believe you without question, but you should have trusted me enough to tell me about your cousins and how you were trying to get them out of that crime family before it was too late, if you'd trusted me I could have helped you!"

Zondra stared at her, stunned. "How? How do you know about that?"

Sarah nodded at Chuck. "My husband."

Zondra looked at Chuck and then back at Sarah with derision. "You? You're married? To _THAT?_ Yeah, right!"

Sarah's blood started to boil. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"If you won't tell me, just say so, don't hand me a pile of bullshit like _THAT!_ Gordon was a snake, but I could see the attraction, him? Don't make me laugh!"

Sarah turned tight faced to John. "Colonel Casey, would you inform the prisoner who my husband is, please?"

John looked immensely amused, but then he could afford to be, he wasn't on the receiving end of this. He drew himself up to attention and barked out.

"Colonel Charles Barton, Special Secret Service Agent of the United States of America and commander of this operation!"

Zondra laughed. "Him, you all work for that milksop? Good luck with that.."

She was cut off there by a slap across the face so hard that both she and the chair she was tied to were almost sent flying.

Chuck barked out "Sarah!" in a very disapproving tone, then took her by the hand and led her from the room.

When they'd left, John got right in Zondra's face and growled. "Don't you _EVER_ disrespect him like that again! He's the bravest man I've ever known, and he's got the Medal of Honor to prove it!"

Zondra sobered up very quickly at that, as she knew she'd just been looking into the face of death, she'd seen the Bear in action before.

A grim faced Tom handed John a chair, which he placed in front of Zondra and sat down. He then spent the next hour explaining to her in a cold, emotionless voice exactly why the operation that she'd been working on for the past several weeks was most definitely _not_ an authorised operation of the government, and how she'd quite possibly set herself up to be shot for treason.

He'd only just finished when Chuck returned without Sarah. John and Tom looked at him with a question in their eyes, and Chuck said. "She's drinking with Jeanne, Hattie and Ellie. Sorry Tom, I expect that Hattie will be feeling poorly by the morning."

Tom shrugged. "It won't be the first time, and if it stops someone being killed, it'll be worth it."

Zondra piped up at that. "Killed, who was going to get killed?"

Chuck took the chair that Alex had vacated when he'd arrived and looking her straight in the eye, said. "You, if you kept baiting my wife like that! Look, we know that it wasn't you who was that traitor in New York, that was Gordon, but she had a point, if you'd just trusted her enough as your friend to tell her why you were keeping a secret she would have helped you."

"You caused the problem back then that ruined your friendship, but if you hope to get out of this now you better start telling us what we need to know. Now, are you going to talk, or do we have to send you back to Washington to face charges of treason?"

Looking into his face now, she could see the man that Casey was talking about, _this_ man was someone that she could see the Black Widow marrying (not realising that this wasn't the man that Sarah chose to marry at all). She nodded and agreed to tell them what they needed to know, but she had one more question before they began. "How did you know about my cousins? I never told anyone about that."

Chuck looked at her. "I got it from DeMarco, of the Ribaldi family."

Her eyes widened at that, DeMarco had been the most feared killer in New York until he'd suddenly disappeared. With that, Chuck nodded to the others and left.

They spent another two weeks in New Orleans, and when they left, Zondra went back to Washington with them. After their rocky start, Sarah and Zondra had patched things up and things were back to where they were before the New York problems.

* * *

They had another private train, made up the same way as the one that had brought them from San Francisco had been to take them back. While the mules were being loaded into the horse cars and their luggage and feed for the mules into the baggage car, Zondra whispered to Sarah. "Who's paying for all this?"

Sarah smiled mysteriously. "We have some very generous sponsors!"

Zondra looked at her, hurt. "I thought that our agreement to stop the secrets went both ways?"

Sarah answered her seriously. "I want to tell you, but it's not just my secret. It can't get out, so if you want to know, you will have to join us."

"What does that mean?"

"It means, give up what you're doing and come in with us, become part of our team. It also means moving to California by the way, as that's where we're going to be based from now on."

"Do you…. is that what _you_ want?"

Sarah nodded emphatically. "Yes!"

"Don't you need to get agreement from the others before you offer this?"

"I'll talk to Chuck and John, but I know that they'll agree."

"Then yes, I want to be a part of this."

Sarah embraced her and then said. "There's a lot to talk about, but as far as who's paying for this, have you heard of the Memphis Trading Group?"

"Of course, some say that they have more money than Rockefeller."

"They do, and we're connected to them."

Zondra just followed her into the train in stunned silence after that.


	9. Coming Home

**When I was answering a question on this, it occurred to me that I've probably been too subtle again, and all the little hints I've dropped through the story about what happened in this world have failed to tell people what I was trying to say.**

 **My vision of the Daemons here is that there weren't more than a couple of hundred at most to start with, as they are ETs who came off a space ship that crashed or failed in Egypt over 5000 years ago (and they kept going back there over time to see whether any of them had worked out a way to get off this planet as that was their meeting point on Earth). They've been wandering around making Earth their playground and humans their toys and snacks, as well as their hosts, ever since then. Their numbers have been going down slowly through accidents and the few humans who were able to kill them, but they're pretty damned hard to kill.**

 **Well that's the underlying image I've used to write this anyway, and the reason they rarely come across each other.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes over the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

When they'd loaded the mules and everything else, they boarded the Pullman cars. With an extra woman in the group, they'd had to reshuffle the sleeping arrangements, the three married couples each took a drawing room as they had before, but the big shock was when Mei quietly suggested that she and John could share one.

Sarah had smiled and gave her a hug as she moved the conversation along, saying that that made things easier, as Zondra could take her place with Jane and Adele in one drawing room, Rick and Hank would have more room, and six other sergeants would take the last two drawing rooms. The rest of the men would be in the open sections and there were plenty of bunks for everyone.

Their stop in Washington was brief, they reported what they'd found, what needed to be kept under observation, and what actions they'd taken in New Orleans. They'd had an agent working for Roan Montgomery inserted into Zondra's role when she disappeared, so they were getting fed the information that was flowing between the Mafia and the local politicians. They introduced Zondra to Uncle Sam and had her transferred to his direct control like the rest of them and then they'd left, heading west again.

When they reached Kansas City, there was another side saddle waiting for them from Mr Landis, as Sarah had measured Zondra as soon as they'd sorted things out and sent the details off to Mr Landis to make up another side saddle, just in case.

These trips across the plains were getting a tad boring for them now, as there wasn't much new scenery to look at, so most of them spent much of the time playing cards, while Chuck and Sarah worked through the ledgers from Sarah's Daemon, creating the authorities to transfer the remnants of its fortune into their control. They'd be doing this for a while, creating the documents and instructions and sending them back to their law firm in locked government bags (which only Jim Goodman had the key to open) to be processed.

The others would drop in fairly often to make them take a break and talk about their future, as that was what they were working for now. They had Uncle Sam's agreement for what they wanted to do and they had the outline of the plan, but now they needed to make it happen.

At the end of this train ride, they would have to talk to the girls that they'd rescued from the Tongs in San Francisco. They had to try to make them understand that they would be far safer away from San Francisco, and indeed any Chinatown area.

Part of the problem was that while they'd had Al, Mike and Bolonia out working to secure the properties that Jane had identified as the most viable since they left Oakland (the law clerk had been handed a sheaf of telegrams to send the morning that they left), they did not yet own anything other than the first rancho they bought to move the girls to.

The deals were all but done on at least one or two of them (including the hacienda on the Los Angeles River with enough buildings to house them all them that were currently sitting empty), all that remained was signing the paperwork, but it did need to be signed to finalise the deal. There was apparently a lot of patching and reconstruction work needed before they'd be suitable for the girls or anyone else to move into as well. Bolonia, Al and Mike had organised the men and materials for that and work had already started, but from what they were saying it would take time to complete.

Chuck, Sarah, John, Hank and Mei had sat down with Jane to decide whether the girls currently in Sacramento could be housed at their rancho until the hacienda was ready. The consensus that they came to was that it would not be very comfortable (with twice the original figure of fifty girls they had planned for), but it _would_ be workable, and safe.

So now they had to talk to the girls and see how many of them were brave and trusting enough to leave everything that they knew and start a new life in what was still pretty much a frontier area.

Their train was shunted to a siding when it stopped at Sacramento and Chuck, Sarah (she knew Chinese too now, via her Daemon), Mei and Jane went to talk to the girls. They explained to them what they could expect if they were caught by the Tongs again, or handed over to them by anyone else. Then they told them what they were offering, how at first at least their living conditions would be quite rough, and they would have to learn many new things and work hard to do their part to make a decent life out of this.

They made no attempt to cover up the hardship that the girls would be facing in this new life they were offering, but at the same time, they made it clear what the alternatives represented to them. When they'd finished, they left the girls alone to talk among themselves.

As they knew all too well what waited for them if they were taken back to the Tongs, it was no surprise when the girls came back to say that they would all gratefully accept the offer of a new life with them.

* * *

Telegrams were sent to charter a steamer to take them to Los Angeles, order seventy bedrolls from the factory in San Francisco (along with blankets and the like), and for Al, Mike and Jeff to organise enough wagons to take the girls and the bedrolls to the rancho. Once they were notified that the steamer had docked, they had the bedrolls loaded onto the steamer, all the girls were packed into the train with them and they headed for the San Francisco docks.

Even with two of the biggest Pullman cars it was rather crowded, and most of the troopers rode in the horse cars to make try and room for them, but they managed to get them to the docks without being seen. Their mules and luggage were loaded onto the steamer over the afternoon, but they waited until after dark before the girls left the cars and were led quickly and quietly onto the steamer.

The staff on the train had been told what these girls had been rescued from, and as most of them were ex-slaves who'd seen their mothers, sisters and others they cared about being abused by their masters, they understood what that meant, so they had little fear of any word about the girls coming from them. The only one they were concerned about was the conductor that the railroad company had insisted be on the train, but John and Hank took him aside and convinced him that if he _ever_ said a word about this to anyone, they _would_ find him, and he would be praying to die long before he did!

A couple of days later, the steamer docked in Los Angeles. Al and Mike had brought all of their wagons down to the docks, and had also borrowed enough other covered wagons to ensure that they could carry them and all the girls, plus the bedrolls and their baggage. They'd found friends to drive the extra wagons down to the docks for them, and paid their train fares back into Los Angeles. As in San Francisco, they dealt with the mules and their baggage (and the bedrolls) first, and hitched up the mules to the wagons that needed more to haul them. Then when the sun went down, the girls were led off the steamer and quickly loaded into the wagons.

It took them nearly five hours to reach the rancho (because they took it slow to avoid jostling the girls in wagons any more than necessary), but luckily it was a full moon so they'd had light to see their way. Doing the trek at night also saved them from having to deal with a lot of questions about why that big a wagon train was heading out of Los Angeles like that.

When they reached the rancho, Bolonia, the people running the rancho and the girls they'd freed from the Tongs in Los Angeles were waiting for them. Bolonia had brought food, and the bedrolls and enough other blankets and such were brought in from the wagons. After everything was explained to the girls, they were given something to eat and put to bed before the rest of the group left to head back to Los Angeles.

It was almost dawn by the time they'd dropped the borrowed wagons back to their owners and returned to Al's stable. They rubbed the mules and horses down and got them settled, then those who were still awake headed off to the Two Widows for breakfast as the sun began to rise.

* * *

It was the start of a new day, but more than that, it was the start of a new life for all of them, not just the girls.

When they arrived at the Two Widows, Bolonia was in the kitchen, trying to get the food ready so Adele and Ellie offered to help, and Bolonia gratefully accepted.

Mike and Al were telling them how the work was going on the buildings that had been abandoned for over two decades and the news was encouraging, in that all the buildings were still sound and weren't requiring anywhere near as much work as they'd expected to bring them to a liveable state.

The hacienda had been a very ambitious undertaking by someone with an misplaced confidence in his divine right for everything to go his way, merely because he willed it so. This worthy had also held disdain for anyone that he regarded as being below his station, so he refused to listen when people tried to tell him that what he wanted to do (establish a large scale plantations for Sisal and Cochineal production) would not work here, because the conditions were wrong for those crops, and the local Indians wouldn't give him the workforce he needed.

As a result, his enterprise had collapsed within a couple of years and he went back to Mexico in defeat, but he had enough political connections on both sides of the border to prevent the hacienda or land being taken off of him or interfered with, and he'd refused to sell, hanging onto some delusion that he would make a triumphant return one day and rebuild his empire.

They'd had Jane looking into acquiring the hacienda since they engaged her to pick up something suitable for the girls they rescued in Los Angeles, but the way that they'd managed to push the purchase through was to use the immense economic power and influence of the Memphis Trading Group, along with a push from Uncle Sam on the political side of things. That much pressure was impossible to resist and they'd got it.

The reason that they pushed so hard to get this hacienda was that that they knew (courtesy of the memories that Chuck had acquired via his Daemon) that, as well as the large areas of prime grazing land, it included some of the best farming land near Los Angeles, with several miles of Los Angeles River frontage guaranteeing the water supply, and large swathes of fertile flood plain to farm.

Levees had already been built around the farm areas, and rails had been laid along the tops of those levees for the horse (or mule) driven trolleys to haul the produce back to the plants at the hacienda.

While deluded, the Haciendo had had enough sense to realise that the large scale production that he planned would be useless without the ability to transport their product to the buyers, and that the roads in this part of the world were woefully inadequate to handle the scale of his dreams. For that reason he'd brought in an engineer to plan and implement the levees (including the tramways on top), irrigation canals, and a navigation canal from the river shore to an artificial lake between the river and the hacienda buildings. The navigation canal entrance was sited on the river bend, where the floods had scoured it wide enough to turn a large boat around and deep enough to ensure that there was always water there.

This canal had pound locks, big and deep enough to hold one quite large river boat or two more normal sized ones, at both the river levee and the lake end of the canal. The lake was big enough for the boats to turn about and served as the water supply for the hacienda as well.

They'd also built a ferry further upriver to carry the tramway trolleys and other cargo across the river and allow the land on the other side of the river to be worked, and the ferry docks that were dug into the river levees also had lock gates to prevent damage in floods.

It was actually these river levees which had made the transport requirements of the hacienda viable. As the land of the hacienda covered both sides of the river, the engineer the Haciendo engaged had run substantial levees right down both sides of the river, around the river bend and past the property lines at each end. These levees channelled the river through to where the natural geography contained it better so in floods, instead of spreading out over the countryside, the river now raged down its natural course, scouring the bottom deeper each time. As a result of this, the river was much deeper now than it had been when the levees were constructed twenty five years before.

The hacienda's levees had caused a problem in Los Angeles at first, because the lower areas of the town were being inundated in floods, but the locals had pitched to construct more levees to contain the river until it had passed the town to stop this. These levees in turn made the floods scour the river bottom deeper further downstream and smaller ships could now steam straight up the river to Los Angeles, the main restriction to navigation being the ships' ability to turn around at the town.

While Chuck hadn't mentioned this yet, he _was_ thinking about the boat that he wanted to have built for them. The hull would be something a young Scottish sailor up on the great lakes had enthusiastically described to one of his Daemon's last victims two years before, with the deck shaped like a whale's back, so when it was heavily laden and riding low in the water, the waves would just wash over it, but when it was lightly laden, it would glide over the water. Around a hundred foot long with a beam of fifteen to eighteen feet, that should be a workable size, but it would also be able to carry a usable amount of cargo when needed.

It'd have a high pressure boiler, or maybe two, and an efficient and powerful little quadruple expansion engine driving twin shafts via separate gearboxes, to manoeuvre it easier and maybe put a couple of props on each shaft to give good thrust with reduced draft and better clearance. From what that sailor had said, this wouldn't just be a river boat either, it'd be seaworthy, so they could use it to get them up to San Francisco when they were called to rush off across the country.

That was something they'd probably need, given the way the expected completion date for the railroad between San Francisco and Los Angeles kept being pushed back, so that they wouldn't have to rely on being able to find a steamer when they needed one. If the numbers in his head were even close to correct, this boat could easily be easily twice as fast as anything plying the west coast at the moment too.

Anyway, those thoughts were for what would come later, for now they had to get the hacienda up to the point where they could move in, along with the girls. Even though they were tired after working most of the night to get the girls safely out to the rancho, they decided that they should head out to the hacienda and see for themselves what the progress was.

* * *

Given that Al's size made riding uncomfortable for him, he drove a buggy on the trip out to the hacienda, and Jane, Anna and Zondra went with him while the rest of them rode.

While the mules had covered a lot of miles the night before, it had been at an easy pace, so they were fine to set a good pace out to the hacienda. Looking over Anna and Al's shoulders and seeing Chuck and Sarah lean over to kiss as they rode along, Zondra turned to Jane and asked. "Are they like this all the time?" as she motioned forward to the couple riding at the front of the group.

Jane glanced at the pair and smiled. "Yes, that's pretty much it when they're not in the middle of some battle, which seems an awful lot of the time."

Zondra shook her head. "Don't you get tired of it?"

That got her a cool look from Jane. "Are you _serious_? I've known Elana since she was a little girl, and this is the only time I've ever seen her really happy, when she is with Chuck. I wouldn't change _that_ for the world."

Zondra looked thoughtful at that, as it did make her stop and think. She was still thinking of Wiseman, no, Sarah, as the Black Widow, the top agent who thought of nothing but the next assignment and pleasing the bosses (though she would never have believed _who_ her boss was). If she looked at her, _really_ looked at her though, that wasn't who she was any more, she was quite obviously a woman very much in love with her husband, who was supposedly the President's top agent now.

Looking at the pair, she also had to concede that this Chuck was very much more than he appeared to be on the surface. The way Sarah and the Marshal deferred to him, and so did Miller, no Hattie, and _her_ husband (who was an obviously accomplished military man) told a story, even if she couldn't quite see it for herself yet.

At the pace that these mules were ambling along, it didn't take them more than an hour to reach the dilapidated gates of the hacienda. As they rode in, most of the men were bowing to Chuck and calling him 'Patron', and it didn't take a trained spy to see that he didn't like that.

The ones who hadn't seen the hacienda before couldn't believe that this had been sitting here, empty, for so long, just ten miles away from Los Angeles. The main building was a classically elegant hacienda, whitewashed walls topped with a terracotta tile roof, two and a half storeys, opening onto the central courtyard it was built around. All the floors were patterned tiles, the primary departure from the Spanish style was the use of the more ornate ironwork that had been the American contribution to the New Orleans style. The water supply hadn't failed, so the pools were full, the fountains were still flowing and the gardens in the courtyard (and outside) were lush and overgrown.

Attached to the main house, extending it, were the domestic and stable wings, these were also two and a half storeys, and were joined at the end. Thus, the building essentially formed a double version of the traditional main house, though the 'domestic' end was plainer than the 'family' end.

'Behind' the main house was the the chapel, rows of terraced houses for the married workers, workers' bunk houses, buildings for the plants, storehouses, farm equipment, smithy, workshops for other craftsmen and the like, a large round house that contained the stables, carriage house and trolley house, it was essentially an entire pueblo that had been built out there.

* * *

Their prime purpose that day was to see how the renovations and repairs were going on the living quarters, so they first headed upstairs in the main building to check on that.

Going up to what would have been called the attic level back east, it was split up into small cells around the walls where there were small windows up under the eaves, these cells were big enough for a cot, a closet and a little room to move about, cosy but not too small for one person, though they had less light than the rooms downstairs due to the small windows.

When the they'd looked around, Chuck told the men that they were doing a good job and thanked them before heading out to see the other work. Just before he reached the stairs, though, one of the men humbly said "Gracias, Patron" and Chuck froze, before nodding brusquely and hurrying off down the stairs.

Sarah, Ellie and Hattie burst out giggling while the man asked what he had done wrong. As he was upset and worried, Sarah made the effort to get herself under control and explain to him that he had done nothing wrong, it was just that Senor Charles still wasn't used to being the boss, and he wasn't comfortable with people deferring to him as the master.

When he asked what he was supposed to call the Jefe then, Sarah and Ellie shared a look and a mischievous grin.

Sarah smiled at the man, saying. "Just that, you can call Senor Charles 'Jefe', treat him as the boss, not as a master, and let the other men know that too."

As he still looked concerned, Ellie stepped forward to put an hand on his shoulder, telling him that it would be fine.

He ducked his head, saying "Gracias Senora" and, nodding respectfully to Sarah, left.

Ellie looked at Sarah then, saying. "You know he's going to hate that almost as much, don't you?"

Sarah smiled at her. "Oh yes, but we had to give them something that they could work with, and he has to get used to the fact that he _is_ El Jefe. After all, the men have all been calling him 'Boss' for over a year now."

Ellie smiled at that, conceding the point. "Just don't expect him to like it." Sarah nodded with a grin.

By the time they caught up with Chuck, word had gotten around, and all the men were calling him 'Jefe'. He spied the man talking to someone and called him over.

"Do you know why everyone is calling me 'Jefe'?"

"Si Senor Charles, the damas told us to."

"Which damas?"

"Your esposa and your hermana Senor Charles, have we done something wrong?"

Chuck sighed resignedly and shook his head. Putting his hand on the man's shoulder, he said. "No, you haven't done anything wrong, it's just my wife and sister having fun while they make me accept the way things are now, tell the men that it's OK, leave it at Jefe if that's easier."

"Si Jefe, gracias."

Chuck looked up to see Sarah and Ellie watching him, and crooked a finger at Sarah.

She came to him, rising on tiptoe to gently kiss him on the lips with a smile. "Si, Jefe?"

"Why?"

"You had that poor man convinced he'd done something wrong when he addressed you respectfully as Patron, so we tried to explain to him that you weren't comfortable being treated like a master. He asked us how he should address the Jefe then, so that's what I told him."

He mock glared at her, then leant down to kiss her again with a sigh. "I love you." "And I you!"

* * *

After they'd all checked out the bunk houses and talked to the carpenters making the cots and other furniture, they headed out to the fields to see how much of a challenge they were facing. As they stood on the levee and looked out over the fields they saw that they were in for a _BIG_ challenge. The fields, or what they wanted to be the fields, were seriously overgrown, with brushes and trees all over, so they started asking themselves what they had to deal with this.

When they checked the buildings, much of the machinery was there, but it needed to be refurbished before it could be used, and it wouldn't really help them with clearing the fields. Chuck considered building steam shovels to do the work but decided that it would take too long, so they organised to buy some draft teams and harnesses and Mike ordered in piles of billhooks, axes, picks, shovels and the like. As the men who were doing the renovations and building the furniture were doing quite a good job, Chuck left them to it and he and the others took on much of the heavy work of clearing the fields, cutting down the trees, grubbing out the stumps and the like.

Hacking out the fields, and burning what they'd hacked out was hot, dirty work, so most of them were working with their shirts off. The first time most of the men (or women) saw Chuck with his shirt off, they stopped and stared, as they could not comprehend how anyone could have been shot through and through so many times (as he had those scars both front and back) and survived. Zondra was standing next to Tom when she had her first sight of this, and she asked in a shocked and horrified whisper "What happened to him?"

Her head whipped around to stare at him when he simply answered. "The Bear."

She pointed at John. "Do you mean?"

He nodded, and decided that she did deserve to hear the story now, as she'd changed a lot from the way she'd been when they first brought her in that night in New Orleans.

"It was when he came to be called the Hero of Cripple Creek, John coined that title by the way, Chuck was the engineer assigned to the company that was all that was left of the Second Cavalry after we were almost wiped out in a battle the previous month, and we'd been tasked with holding the railroad junction at Cripple Creek. He went out to scout the area, and came back to tell the Major who'd just taken command of the company what we needed to do secure the position and hold the railroad junction."

"Chuck was good, damned good, and everything he told the Major _should_ have been done, but the Major was a pompous fool, putting more stock in his own opinion as a West Point graduate who'd been in the army for over twenty years than what this boy (Chuck was only sixteen then, even though he was officially twenty and was tall enough to make most believe it), who wasn't a 'proper' engineer told him, so he ignored him and ordered us to take position where _he_ chose."

"As a result, when the short battalion of Confederate riflemen arrived, we were pinned down in an untenable position, but that wasn't the worst of it. The Confederates had obviously regarded this railroad junction as far more important than the Union had, because they'd sent someone else to ensure that they took it, they'd sent the Bear. He put all the other officers and sergeants down within half an hour, and Hank and I were the only ones who survived that. After I got shot, I was laying in a firing pit, hurt and bleeding and scared that I was going to die."

"About half of the men tried to run after the sergeants went down and the Confederates mowed them down as they ran, we lost over a third of our numbers in that rout. But then I heard someone shouting orders at the men who were left, Chuck. He organised the best shots we had with best rifles to target the important areas, and had men reloading for them so that they always had a charged rifle in their hands, and set others to keep firing at the Rebs as well, just enough to make them keep their heads down without wasting too much ammunition."

"Once he had the immediate situation under control, he sent men to see who was wounded, and that was why I lived, because they stopped the bleeding and dragged me to a safe position. He also sent men to bring back any food, water, guns and ammunition that they could find. When we had everyone and everything we could, Chuck moved us to a better position and we dug in to fight."

"Unfortunately, the Bear could see what was happening, and that to do his duty he'd have to put this new leader down in order for the South to prevail and take the railroad junction. Chuck was a harder target to hit than any of us had been though, and he expended far more ammunition on him than he had on the rest of us put together, but the thing was that Chuck wouldn't stay down. _Five times_ , he patched himself up enough to stem the bleeding and dragged himself back to lead the men, so the sixth time he managed to hit him, John put another two bullets into him as he lay there to put an end to it."

"I couldn't let Chuck's sacrifice be in vain, so I started shouting at the men that we weren't going to waste what Chuck had given us, and we managed to hold out until reinforcements arrived a few hours later."

"Somehow Chuck had survived though, so as soon as the reinforcements arrived we sent him and the other seriously wounded off in a wagon to the hospital in hope that he could be saved. Then the Bear walked in and gave himself up, saying that he'd just killed the Hero of Cripple Creek for nothing, because we didn't fold like we were supposed to once he was gone, and he wasn't about to sacrifice any more heroes like him at the bidding of men who weren't fit to clean his boots."

"The Major in charge of the reinforcements ordered him shot on the spot, but I convinced him to send the man to command for questioning, as this was no ordinary sniper, _the Bear_ was important. The Bear was taken to General Grant for questioning, but when the General saw him he recognised him from when the General had talked to his class at West Point. He gave John a chance to tell his tale, and then took him into the Union Army as Captain John Casey."

"John and Chuck have reconciled, as John had what he'd seen as honourable reasons for doing what he did, and because John had been protecting Sarah since she was eleven, working as a spy for the South like he was, and Chuck felt he owed him for that."

Zondra was staring at Tom, not able to believe what she was hearing, but at the same time knowing that he wouldn't tell a story like this if it weren't true.

Tom nodded at Chuck. "It was touch and go for a couple of months but his family finally found him, and eventually he started to recover under Ellie's care. When he was out of danger he was discharged from the Army with a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in the Corps of Engineers, along with a brevet promotion to full Colonel in the Regular Army and the Medal of Honor."

"When he came into this world about a year and a half ago after he'd helped Sarah with her assignment in Boston, the President sent me to Boston with a company of troopers to bring them back to Washington because they both knew me, and would trust me, and that's how we're together."

He looked her in the eye. "As John said, he's the bravest and best man we know, and we'll follow him anywhere."

With that he dropped his shirt on the trolley (as he'd been doing when Zondra spoke to him) and went back to work slashing the field.

By the time the buildings were ready for the girls to move in they'd cleared the entire area enclosed by levees next to where the buildings were, and were in the process of plowing and planting. Mei and Anna went with the wagons to collect the girls (only one or two wagons at a time to avoid attracting too much attention) and explain to them what was going on.


	10. Chuck's Growing Family

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

As the girls arrived, most of them started pitching in straight away, yes, they needed instruction on what to do, but they paid attention and were helping out quickly. The way they reacted when some of the men tried to talk to them highlighted two points though, that they needed to get their English, and Spanish, up to a workable level, and the others needed to understand what these girls had been through, so that they wouldn't frighten them.

Chuck, Sarah, Mei and Anna started working on the girls' language skills, and they took the people brought in to work the hacienda aside to explain what had happened to them. Anna was in tears as she described what had happened to her when she'd been put in the brothel like the other girls had been, and most of the men and women that were listening were horrified. A few had to have their attitudes adjusted, but after they saw the first couple of men killed when they attacked Chuck and Sarah after they were essentially told 'change or die', the others fell into line quickly.

The hard line they took was necessary because these girls had nowhere else to go. It wasn't like the Presidio where the soldiers only had to be kept quiet until they'd been safely moved somewhere else, the hacienda was their home, their last refuge, so they could not risk disgruntled men telling _anyone_ about all the Chinese girls at the hacienda just outside Los Angeles, as that would lead the Tongs straight to them. Maria, Al and Mike had done a good job of screening the men that they brought in to get the hacienda fixed up and work it, but there was always a few rotten pieces of fruit in the barrel.

The people were coming to see El Jefe and La Ama with different eyes after watching them work in the fields, the discussions about the girls, and those incidents with those men who believed that girls were there for their fun. They'd seen El Jefe working himself harder than anyone else to make this hacienda a going concern, along with La Ama, and now they saw that these two could be dangerous when they had to be (and those scars on him!) These two weren't the pampered children of privilege that everyone had first thought, they'd obviously had to fight for what they had, and they were still fighters. They had been inclined to defer to El Jefe and La Ama's positions before, but now they were prepared to fight for them, them and their little Dragons (the name 'Dragon Lady' had originally been coined for Mei, but it had been extended to include Anna and the rest of the Chinese girls, too).

* * *

After being together for nearly a year and a half, Sarah was used to the way that Chuck would work on designing the things he'd been thinking of late into the night (even with his hands raw from the labour he'd been doing in the field), as it calmed him, but he was concentrating on this new design more than most, so she decided to ask him about it.

When she came to stand beside him and kiss his cheek as he was working at the drafting table, he wrapped his arm around her and drew her close. Now that she got to see what he was drawing though, she didn't really have any idea what it was. Even scanning her acquired memories didn't help her understand it, so she asked him what it was, looking at him sceptically when he smiled and said. "A boat."

"That doesn't look like any boat that I've ever seen!"

He smiled again. "No, I suppose it doesn't." He explained about the Scottish sailor who'd told one of his Daemon's victims about his idea for a boat with the deck curved like the back of a whale so that the waves would just wash over when it was heavily laden, but which would skim over the water when it was lightly loaded, and showed her the points of the design that helped this.

She smiled at him fondly as he excitedly described what the design could do, _this_ was the man she'd fallen for, getting excited about what his boat could do, just as he'd been excited when they saw San Francisco for the first time. She could understand most of the concepts, from the memories of her Daemon's victims, and she could see that, if it even came close to what Chuck expected (and she had every confidence that it _would_ ), this would be an incredible craft.

Eventually she quietened him with a kiss and said "I presume that this will be built by Patersons?"

Chuck nodded, he hadn't talked to them yet about building the boat, but he was confident that Scottie and Mr Paterson would jump at the chance to work on this. The biggest problem he could see was that he wanted to build it out of aluminium, and no-one had ever done that before.

"And once it's built, who will run it for us?"

He frowned at that, as he had no idea about that as yet, only that he hoped that Mr Paterson may have some suggestions. She kissed away his frown and told him that they would find someone.

They went to bed after that, and Sarah ensured that he stopped thinking about the potential problems with his boat, though she didn't forget the name he'd scribbled on the drawing, Memphis Belle, she liked that, it was such a pretty name.

When Sarah showed Tom Chuck's designs, he laughed. "Oh yes, my father would jump at the chance to command something like this, even for a short time!"

They went looking for Chuck and told him that they believed that they'd found someone to master the Memphis Belle (that name was fixed in now, they all liked it), and that he'd probably help put together the crew that he needed too.

* * *

All the girls had been brought over from the rancho now. There was still a lot to be done, as nearly half the girls were still using the bedrolls they'd bought when they brought them to Los Angeles as their mattresses and the like, but they were all together at the hacienda, and they were working together to build what was to be their home.

Some of the girls were also proving to be quite good fishermen, which was handy, as they were only starting to acquire the stock they needed for the hacienda at that point and they didn't have many fit to eat, but for some reason the artificial lake was teaming with fish, so they had people fishing there and in the river all the time to get what they needed to eat.

Things were starting to get settled in within a month, but then they got another urgent message to say that they were needed back in New Orleans, as the situation was heating up there again. Uncle Sam knew that they'd be concerned about the girls and the hacienda if they all left, so this time the message was brought by Captain Stevens (Captain Stevens had commanded the picked platoon that had escorted them to the President's House when they came up on the Florida), as he and his platoon were to be stationed there to guard the hacienda and its people while they were away.

They also brought a team of engineers with them. _They_ were there to put in a telegraph line and station for the hacienda, because the President wanted to make sure he could contact them whenever he needed them.

They quickly packed to leave, with Chuck, Sarah, Tom and John giving the Captain strict instructions as to how his men were to behave with the people of the hacienda and especially the Chinese girls, and also requesting him to render assistance with the clearing etc tasks that they were being taken away from if possible.

Chuck took the chance to catch up with Jim Green, the officer in charge of the Engineers' team, as he'd known him in the war. The two of them shared engineers' excitement over Chuck's designs and concepts for the Memphis Belle, and Jim suggested that Chuck take them with him, in case he got the chance to see the shipyard while he was over there.

That led Chuck to comment that they hadn't even tried to free up the lock gates yet, so they went to have a look at them. They looked sound enough, and Jim promised to see what he could do about freeing them up once they were done with the telegraph.

One thing they didn't take this time was the mules, as they hadn't had any real use for them, or even time to spend with them, the last time they'd been there, and they made the travel arrangements much more complicated. Because of that, they just needed to have the two Pullman's Hotel cars added to a train, and Uncle Sam had sent the call for those cars off to Tolbert, Ives and Jager when he'd set Captain Stevens on the journey to Los Angeles, so when they arrived in San Francisco by fast steamer, the train was sitting there, ready to leave with the cars hitched to it.

They'd asked Anna to stay behind at the hacienda to look after the girls again, and of course Jane hadn't come along this time, as her business in New Orleans was done now that she was in contact with the rest of the Family via mail and telegram.

Without the horse cars, they had no need for the troopers to stand guard duty, except for their baggage, and they resolved that issue by using the spare spaces in the open sections for the trunks and bags. John and Mei shared a drawing room again and Zondra shared another drawing room with Adele.

With the other girls' help, Zondra had been applying skin dye all over every day since they'd heard they were going back to to New Orleans, and by the time they arrived she looked so convincing as a Creole girl of mixed race that they were comfortable that the only attention that she'd get from anyone that she'd dealt with before was for her beauty. If _they_ had trouble recognising her as Zondra Rizzo, they had no fear that the Mafia or rebels would recognise her. Adele had also been coaching her in the Creole patois every chance they got, so she sounded as convincing as she looked.

They had an additional element to look into this time though, as Uncle Sam's information was that the rogue army elements were getting more involved in the political machinations going on down there, led by a General Merriweather.

The problem with that was that John had known him as _C_ _olonel_ Merriweather up in the Nevada territory (he was the one who'd refused him permission to mount any attempt to save Kathleen), along with Colonel James Keller, who'd been Merriweather's dog even then, so finding that they were traitorous skunks was no great surprise to anyone.

They booked into a different hotel under different names this time because they'd decided that they should lower their profile in New Orleans if they were going to have to keep coming back, and that was beginning to look like a distinct possibility.

As soon as their party was settled into the hotel, Sarah, Chuck, John and Mei went to see their Oncle Andre, both as the advertised social visit, and to see what he could tell them about what was going on.

Andre was delighted to see them of course, and he spent a couple of hours filling them in on what he and the Family had observed since their previous (after they left last time, Andre had convinced the Family to keep watch on anything that may be useful to Elana, Johnny and their party).

When he was done, they relaxed with absinthe (they couldn't refuse Andre, though he _did_ have to send them back to the hotel in his carriage) and talked about news from Alex and Kathleen, how Jeanne was, and about the hacienda. Andre was delighted by Sarah and the others' stories about how Chuck reacted to being called El Jefe.

Andre also commented on how the hard labour of getting the farm started had filled Chuck out, John (and most of the men) had toned up quite a bit from the hard work that they were doing, but they hadn't gotten bigger. However, as lean as Chuck had been before and working as hard as any of them, if not harder, he had filled out to the point where he'd needed to get his clothes re-tailored. He was more imposing now, something that Andre had noted the moment he saw him.

As they were leaving, Chuck asked Andre if he could keep an eye out for a property that they could use to lay low in while they were in New Orleans. Andre asked him the explain what he was after, and when he had done so, Andre smiled mysteriously and joined them in the carriage, directing the driver to drive around to a property in the next street.

When they arrived, Chuck understood Andre's mysterious smile, as this was the house he'd grown up in! Ellie had told him that it had been changed into a storehouse or something, so he hadn't bothered taking the time to visit it, and he hadn't remembered it well enough to realise just how close to Andre's is was. As they sat in the carriage outside the business that it was now, Andre explained.

"After the war, they extended the building and turned it into a commercial storehouse, it still has your old apartments upstairs, along with some storerooms in the back. Downstairs, it has offices, stables and bathing, toilet and cooking facilities sufficient to cater for the storehouse workers and drivers, and as you can see it backs onto my house. I've been interested in this property for years, but I could never justify spending what they wanted for it. The comfort levels would not be what you are used to, of course" (thinking of the St Charles hotel and the Pullman cars) "but if you want to lay low in New Orleans, I think this could fit the bill."

Chuck looked at the others and, seeing that he wanted this _and_ that it made sense, they all nodded. Sarah put her hand on Andre's arm, asking. "Oncle Andre, do you think you can track down the owners and get them to sell it to us? You're right, it will be perfect for what we need. And yes, of course you can use it when we're not here, just be your usual careful self and don't bring any attention to the place."

"But are you sure that your people will accept living rough like this after what they're used to?"

Sarah laughed. "You've only seen one side of us Oncle, aside from Mei and Zondra we've all spent months camping rough out in the back country, and from seeing Mei on the trail for nearly a week and knowing Zondra I'm sure that they can handle it?" (looking at them and getting nods) "This will be fine, we can get bedrolls and everything else shipped in, so all we'd need to bring when we come is the food…. No, this will be perfect, merci Oncle Andre." She kissed him on the cheek.

With that, Andre directed the driver to take them to their hotel. Sarah and the others were remarkably lucid after all the absinthe that they'd been drinking, so he decided to use the trip to sort out what they wanted, that would let him get moving on the deal first thing in the morning.

* * *

The next morning, sore heads weren't enough to slow Sarah or the others, either, and they leapt into following up the information that Andre had given them, as the political machinations were indeed hotting up again, and Merriweather and Keller's involvement was a lot more than they realised in Washington.

They could see that John wanted to go after Merriweather and Keller, and that the only thing stopping him was his loyalty to Chuck and the group. To make sure that he understood that they were behind him on this, Chuck and Sarah took him aside to assure him that they would put everything that they could find on them together and bring them down, telling him what he and Sarah had already recalled, and recorded, about both of them from the documents and his comments.

John nodded his thanks, still a man of few words (the efforts of the girls, Chuck and Andre notwithstanding), he appreciated what they were doing, and Chuck and Sarah knew it, that was all that mattered.

While they were chasing down the political and criminal dealings that they'd been sent there to deal with, Andre was moving on the deal for the storehouse behind his house. He came back a couple of days after they'd been to see him, to tell them that the owner was willing to sell, but the price he was demanding was too high. After what he'd observed the last time they were there though, he wasn't at all surprised when they just waved away the issue of the price as if it were nothing and told him they wanted to close the deal as quickly as possible. Andre did have the satisfaction of talking the man down by nearly twenty percent and returning that money to Charles when the deal was done, chiding him that it was bad business to agree to the asking price.

They arranged through Andre to get workmen in to do the amendments they wanted, and had them add a doorway into Andre's place at the same time, to give him unfettered and unseen access to what was to be their New Orleans base of operations. These amendments were mainly converting some of the store rooms upstairs into bedrooms and updating the cooking and bathroom facilities to make it more liveable. The sleeping arrangements for the men were basic, but comfortable enough, and they would have plenty of good food and modern bathrooms, after what they were used to, that was quite comfortable. The beds and living arrangements upstairs were more comfortable, to be sure, but there wasn't that much difference.

They arranged for the purchase and delivery of three dozen normal and half a dozen double bedrolls (of the same type that they had back in California) with blankets and such, along with the pots, pans, plates and everything else they needed for day to day living. These would be stored in one of the secure storerooms they left upstairs when they weren't there, along with their other supplies and equipment that would be left there. (They were securing the apartments and storerooms upstairs so that Andre could use the downstairs unencumbered when they weren't there.)

Once the renovations had been done and the bedrolls and other equipment had been delivered, they moved the bulk of what they had with them into their storerooms in Casa Memphis (as it had come to be called), and then very publicly left New Orleans as a group.

* * *

They took the Pullman cars up to Memphis and separated there, slipping back into the city in disguise in groups of no more than five or six over the next three or four days.

They were actually a little disappointed to see how easy it had been to deceive their opponents, because it was obvious that none of them had any idea that they were operating in the city again once they'd returned. There was no challenge to be had in besting opponents who were so pitifully inadequate.

For all the disappointing lack of challenge though this did make their work easier, and they were gathering a lot of information on the ones they were up against, with the information they collected being extended by what Sarah and Chuck were recalling when they saw and heard things of course.

Working out of a commercial property in a back street in the French Quarter to all intents and purposes rendered them invisible. So long as no-one identified them on the street (and few in New Orleans were capable of seeing through their disguises), they were free to operate as they pleased.

It was a strange experience for Chuck, after being a unique resource for his team and country for a year and a half, to become the second string in this operation. He didn't mind at all that Sarah was taking the lead on this, it made sense because she had the majority of the memories that were moving the operation forward, while his memories were more filling in the holes in what she remembered. What he _was_ worried about was that he was putting most the load on her to come up with the results for this operation, and he was concerned that he wasn't doing his part.

Sarah was also thinking about this, and she was worried about it causing problems for them, with her taking the lead off Chuck and usurping his role in the team, so she was totally unprepared for Chuck's reaction when she hesitantly broached the subject with him.

When Sarah tried to apologise for taking over his role in this operation, Chuck burst out laughing and embraced her, kissing her happily. When they came up for air, he explained that _he_ had been feeling guilty about dumping that role onto her, because he wasn't the one with the information in his head that they needed for this operation.

They spent the rest of that night, trying to properly express to each other what they were feeling, about the situation and each other, and they were much happier in the morning. Mostly happy anyway, their euphoria was only marred by the fact that Sarah was feeling poorly.

* * *

The team continued to collect and assemble information on the various elements in and around New Orleans that they were tasked with, but when Sarah had been feeling poorly much of the time for several days in a row, Chuck made her let Ellie examine her, to try and work out what was wrong.

Ellie was amused to note that this time, without the fear for her life and soul that had gripped him the night that she'd absorbed the memories and life force of the Daemon that had been inhabiting Decker's body, Chuck _did_ leave to respect Sarah's privacy.

Sarah was getting concerned by Ellie's behaviour as she was examining her, poking and prodding at her, she even examined her breasts carefully. But just as Sarah became convinced that something was seriously wrong with her, and she was beginning to wonder if her time was running out, Ellie broke into one of those dazzling smiles that only she and Chuck seemed capable of, and embraced her.

This wasn't one of Ellie's usual bone breaking hugs though, it was far more tender and gentle. This only served to convince Sarah that something was wrong (though that smile confused her) and she asked worriedly. "What is it? What's wrong with me Ellie? Tell me!"

Ellie gave a happy laugh. "There's nothing wrong with you silly, you're with child!"

"What? How?"

Ellie laughed again, "Oh come now, I know that you've only been with Chuck really, but I wouldn't have thought that even you would have had to ask about _that_ Sarah!"

"I know for a fact that you've been having relations with your husband, because I've _heard_ you! And I must tell you, the fact that your husband is my little brother has made that more than a little uncomfortable for me!"

Sarah went bright red at Ellie's words. She'd never realised that she'd been so vocal that others could hear them, that was bad enough, but for Ellie to hear them? She thought she was going to die of embarrassment!

"Are you sure? About the baby?"

"Well, I don't believe that it's possible to be absolutely certain, at least not with the tests that _I_ know of, you may be able to find better ways to test in there" (she tapped her finger to her temple) "but I did every test that I know of, that's why it took so long, and every indication is that you are with child."

It was starting to sink in to Sarah and whispered in awe. "I'm going to have a baby, _we're_ going to have a baby!" Ellie grinned and nodded.

All of a sudden, Sarah looked panic stricken again. "But I don't know what to do, what if I do some thing wrong and hurt the baby? I'm not ready to have a baby Ellie! I'm not _fit_ to have a baby!"

Ellie grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to calm her, but when that didn't work she poured a solid jolt of Andy's whiskey and made her take it to settle her nerves.

The whiskey burning its way down her throat did break Sarah free of the panic attack, but then she started crying.

Chuck came in to find Ellie sitting there, holding his crying wife and _he_ started having a panic attack, asking what was wrong? By then, Ellie was at her wits' end with trying to calm Sarah, so she just snapped at Chuck.

"Nothing's wrong! Your wife is just emotional because you're having a baby!"

That snapped Chuck out of it faster than the whiskey had Sarah and his face lit up. "Baby? We're having a baby?"

Ellie was a little out of sorts with him, because after all, _he_ was the cause of this situation that _she_ was having to deal with, so she just snapped at him.

"Yes! You're having a baby, now come here and take my place looking after your wife!"

He nodded and hurried over, but as Ellie went to stand Sarah grabbed her hand and whispered a heartfelt "Thank you Ellie."

Ellie smiled warmly at her and leant in to kiss her on the cheek, whispering "My pleasure, sister of mine!"

As soon as Ellie shared the happy news, everyone wanted to congratulate them, but John stationed himself outside the door of their room, and the only ones who managed to get past him were the girls.

When everyone had settled down, they got out messages to Uncle Sam, the people back in Los Angeles, and Kathleen and Alex. They weren't terribly surprised by the almost immediate response from Uncle Sam, demanding that Sarah come to Washington to be examined by his physicians, and they decided to follow up a few other things as part of this trip.

* * *

Chuck quickly made copies of all his designs for the boat and it's boilers, engine and such before they left.

For this trip, Tom and Hattie would be coming along, with Hank, Weed, six troopers and Adele, while John, Mei and Zondra kept the investigations going, and Ellie, Andy, Rick and the other twenty eight troopers stayed with them. Enquiries with Pullman's had located an original Hotel car that was no more than a couple of days' travel away, so they arranged to get that onto a train to New Orleans at the earliest opportunity.

The others did have another task to attend to if they had time while they were away, arranging to ship the bodies of two more Sefton Landaus, three stylish extension-top park phaetons and four quite elegant little private omnibuses (these seemed to be a style that was popular in New Orleans) to Paterson's in Pittsburgh to be remade into vapor carriages like the first one that Chuck picked up.

They had found in the time that they'd been in New Orleans that, due to the buckets of money the traders had had, especially back in the slave trading days, landaus and other fine carriages were a dime a dozen there, and they were quite often smashed up in drunken races around the streets.

Thanks to this, they'd managed to pick up another nine nice carriages with negligible damage to the bodywork and in good condition other than smashed wheels and the like quite cheap.

Chuck had drawn up and documented precisely what he wanted done with them, so now they just needed to ship the bodies up to Scottie in Pittsburgh to get it done.

 **A/N: Strangely enough, there _were_ aluminium ships being built in the 1800s, including a 58 metre torpedo boat made of aluminium named Sokol in 1894, so the Belle being built in aluminium twenty years earlier in this more advanced world isn't that outlandish after all. **


	11. Mechanical Contraptions

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

Their trip to Washington was quiet and relaxing as aside from Adele they had no work to do, other than the amendments that Chuck was making to the drawings for the Memphis Belle and the omnibuses.

Once they arrived in Washington, Uncle Sam sent Sarah off to the physicians for the battery of tests that they would be doing on her, and Hattie and Adele went with her. Uncle Sam's physicians hadn't been foolish enough to try to separate Hattie (or Adele) from Sarah more than once, and they stayed as far away from Hattie as they could after their first taste of what happened when they did.

Hattie's shadowing Sarah through this was partly due to her own inclination, and partly the promise that Sarah got her to make to Chuck, so he'd agree to leave her side and go to see the people at Patersons about his boat.

With that, Chuck and Tom kissed their wives goodbye and headed off to Pittsburgh to see about getting the Memphis Belle built. Chuck had sent off a copy of the designs to Tom's father when they got to New Orleans, and as soon as he saw them Scottie got excited about the concept of the Memphis Belle (as they knew he would). He had a number of suggestions of his own which had the three of them sitting down when Chuck arrived to make revisions to the designs.

Tom couldn't understand most of what they were discussing, so he excused himself and went to visit with his mother for a few hours. He wasn't at all surprised to find them still hard at it when he returned.

These three had a wealth of experience and knowledge for this. Scottie's engineering genius quite possibly exceeded Chuck's in some areas, and he had been at the forefront of steam technology for decades now. Chuck was a general engineering genius, but his true genius was in clockwork devices (and guns), so he created the clockwork engines they used for many jobs. Finally, Joseph's decades of nautical experience and strength in nautical engineering provided the insights to direct the pure engineering focus of the other two. Between them, they would create something such as the world hadn't seen before.

At first, Scottie and Joseph questioned Chuck's sanity when he insisted that the construction _had_ to be in aluminium, not iron, or even steel, but they went over the properties of the aluminium alloys that he wanted to use and eventually conceded that it _would_ make a better ship better this way. They would have to come up with new processes and equipment to build it, but the more they thought about it, the more excited they were by the idea.

The first of Scottie's suggested changes was about the Belle's (as they were already calling her) boilers. He quite agreed with Chuck on running her on fuel oil, rather than coal, but he wanted to make significant changes to what they would be implementing. As it so often did when he was really excited, the thick Scottish brogue he normally affected faded away as he delved into his ideas for this.

"Most boilers I've seen that are running on fuel oil are like the carriages, omnibus and wagon you have up there in New York, they haven't been properly re-engineered, they've just been converted to oil burners for convenience so they're no more efficient than similar coal burners. But I got to thinkin' when your plans turned up, this boiler design of your's is good Laddie, so if we reworked it to properly optimise it to run on oil, and pushed the pressure even higher, then we could make the Belle a far better oil burner, better overall too."

He handed some sketches and calculations to Chuck.

"If my numbers are right, we could get over twice the power, or twice the range out of her using the same fuel space at the same power."

At that they all started debating fuel storage locations, agreeing that instead of using the bow for the fuel oil tanks as Chuck had specified, they would be better served using cylinders between the inner and outer hulls on the bottom for the main fuel tanks to keep the weight low, leaving _some_ tanks in the bow.

Scottie's next suggestion was to do with a new type of engine called a steam turbine that people had been working on for a few years now. None of them had gotten one to work properly yet, but the concept had incredible promise and he was confident that _he_ could make it work if someone (glancing at Chuck) funded the development.

Chuck knew that when it came to steam, there was no-one better than Scottie, so he asked.

"How long do you think it would take you to create a viable steam plant for the Memphis Belle that's an improvement over at least a triple expansion engine, I'd prefer quadruple but I'll accept triple, with these turbines?"

Scottie considered for a few minutes and then said. "Two months, three tops if I can concentrate on it without interruptions. Of course we'll need to use the same compounding principles to improve the efficiency that much."

With anyone else, this most probably would have been vain boasting, but when it came to Scottie, it was only a statement of fact.

At that, Chuck turned to Tom's father. "Mr Paterson, can the Paterson Company do without its Chief Engineer for that long?"

Joseph laughed. "I don't believe that we have any choice, he won't be able to concentrate on anything else until he builds this now. My brothers won't complain Charles, because so long as we're making money, they neither know nor care what Scottie's doing."

Chuck nodded. "That's not a problem, Memphis Trading will pay for any development work, along with the hull construction of course."

Joseph nodded. "On that, are you locked into the Memphis Belle being a hundred foot long Charles?"

"Not particularly, it just seemed like a good number when I started thinking about it, why do you ask?"

"Well, from my experience, if she was a little longer she'd handle and ride better in heavier seas. Are there any hard constraints on the boat size?"

"The pound locks at the hacienda are a hundred and sixty feet long by thirty wide, and of course she has to be able to turn into the canal, I'd also like to keep her draft as shallow as possible so she can navigate the river OK year 'round, other than that, no."

Joseph nodded, and did some quick calculations on the paper. "Well if we scaled her up by a half again, so that she had a length of a hundred and fifty five feet and beam of twenty six feet, she'd still draw less than five feet unless she's heavily laden, would that be workable, do you think?"

Chuck considered that and nodded again, "That sounds like it would work."

It was Joseph's next question that really caught him out though. "What about the ship's boats?"

"What?"

"You don't have any ship's boats on your design Charles. If you want her to go to sea, she needs them."

Chuck rubbed his forehead, he hadn't even thought about that. "Damnit! How did I forget that? Well, could we put some cradles for life boats big enough to take sail rigs here on the deck in front of the rear turrets? They could fit between the hatch covers couldn't they?"

Scottie piped up. "Yes, they would fit there. That location's good laddie, but why life boats with sail rigs?"

"What do you mean Scottie?"

"What I mean is that we could make bonnie quarter sized models of the Belle that would be far more seaworthy than any life boat, and they could be used as launches to ferry people and such out to the Belle when she's at anchor as well, or go further a-field for that matter, we can use those naphtha engines we created for them, though with this (tapping on the boiler drawings), I'm betting we can improve on them too."

Looking at the designs for the Belle Scottie mapped out the design for the ship's boats out loud. "We want to make them lighter…. we can stay with the aluminium but do away with the double hull, and replace the hatch frames and covers with simple curved covers that can be unbolted to make them into open boats in port, the rear turret can be the wheelhouse….. OK… we could locate sockets for demountable masts there in the front and rear turrets too…. sails _would_ be good to have if they needed to go long distances…. Aye Laddie, this would work."

Chuck nodded excitedly. "That sounds really good, but how many boats should we carry, and how would we get them into the water?"

Joseph took that question. "Two would probably be enough, but if you wanted to carry more people on her... well we can fit three across the deck there in front of the rear turret. As for getting them into the water, I was talking to a young ship's engineer a few years ago and he came up with what I thought was a good idea, but everyone else shot him down. It was for boat davits that were wound in and out on worm drives. The base of the arms was a section of a cog that worked its way across a gear rack as the worm drive was wound in or out, so it remained solidly engaged. One of the things that was interesting about the young man's idea was that these davits could extend forty five degrees or more to either side, so with something like that, we could use the davits on either side to pick up the centre boat and put it in the water."

It only took one look at Chuck to see he was all for these ideas, so the three engineers set to work and over the next four or five hours, they got all the revisions to the designs for the Memphis Belle drawn up, along with the drawings for the three, thirty nine foot long ship's boats with a beam of seven feet. Joseph and Scottie raised their eyebrows when Chuck scribbled down the names Mafdet, Bastet and Sekhmet for the three boats, but didn't ask any questions.

Over the course of the design revisions, there were some major changes to Chuck's designs. The majority of the amendments were to the equipment that Scottie would be building (most notably changing from a single steam engine to two smaller steam turbines, with four boilers and a gearing system that would allow the turbines to each drive a shaft directly, or to share the power between the shafts so that either or both turbines could be used), but there were also some changes to the steering gear and cargo hatch design, the ships boats of course and they'd added masts at the fore and aft turrets (set up so that they could be raised and lowered easily and quickly) for cargo derricks and auxiliary sails, with naphtha engine driven steam donkeys to power the winches (or pumps) underneath them. The clockwork engines for some winches and other equipment remained, as did the clockwork driven elevators in both turrets. They also added attachment and lock down points for a few gangplanks along either side of the boat (also built from aluminium).

The issue of voice tubes throughout the boat, but primarily between the top decks of the front and rear turrets, the engine room, and the bridge, was another important point that Chuck had missed through his lack of practical experience. These were mostly replaced with telefono connections after they discussed the advantages of them (though the primary links to the bridge still had voice tubes as a backup).

When the designs were done, Chuck and Joseph agreed the terms of the various elements of the project and had the contracts drawn up.

* * *

Once they'd signed the contracts, the four of them went down with Scottie to see how the vapor carriage had come out. The landau that they'd acquired in New Orleans looked rather different now, for a start there was a polished brass naphtha engine mounted at an angle under the rear of the carriage, driving the rear axle via a chain drive.

The naphtha engine was a development of the vapor engine that Scottie had come up with and he and Chuck had been improving. It used naphtha instead of alcohol as the working fluid and fuel, and lubricant as well. What Scottie (mostly) had created was a small, lightweight, powerful self contained power plant that eliminated a lot of the disadvantages inherent in small steam engines.

At the other end, the horse shaft had been removed, as had the driver's perch. The driver's seat was now at the level of the previous perch's floor boards, with a new foot section built below that, and curved panelling rising up from the front of the new floorboards to a point just above the seat level. The front of this new driver's box was narrower than the seat, as it was cut in a little on both sides.

On the right side of this driver's box, in the driver's position, a shaft made from brass pipe with two tall levers beside it rose from the floorboards to about a foot above the seat level, where it was topped by a horizontal brass and wood steering wheel about two feet in diameter. A number of brass hand wheels and levers protruded from the panel beneath the seat there, along with a gauge of some sort.

Other significant differences were the folding hood that had been added to the driver's seat to provide cover for the driver in inclement weather, the rods and pipes which now passed under the carriage, and the fact that the wheels were wrapped in India rubber tyres.

All in all, the carriage looked to Tom to be a strange and dangerous contraption, but the three engineers were obviously enamoured with it. This was no surprise to Tom, as he knew quite well what these three were like when it came to mechanical things.

When Scottie said. "Make sure she's out of gear and the brake's engaged laddie." to Chuck, and Chuck went to complete this task, Sam took this as his cue to back up, as these crazy engineers were obviously about to do something.

Chuck stepped back, saying "Done and done!", and the engineers proceeded to the rear of the carriage. A couple of minutes later they'd lit a burner of some sort back there, and Scottie ran to the front to adjust one of the hand wheels beneath the driver's seat, watching the gauge for a few minutes before saying. "Aye, she's ready!"

Tom's father opened the door to the carriage proper and climbed in. Tom was interested to note that he led off with his mechanical leg, as though he felt that he could rely on it more than he could his 'real' leg.

As he did this, Chuck and Scottie climbed into the driver's box, with Chuck sitting behind the wheel, and then they all looked at Tom. His father called out. "Come along Thomas, what are you waiting for?"

Tom grimaced, but knew that there was no way out of this, so he approached the carriage, climbing into the carriage proper and taking a seat beside his father once he'd closed and latched the door.

Chuck asked "Are we all ready?" and Scottie responded with. "Aye, get along with ye laddie!"

With that there was a 'clunk' and the carriage lurched into motion. As it headed out of the building, Tom could hear Scottie giving Chuck instructions. Tom's trepidations were diminishing as the ride progressed though, and he was actually starting to enjoy the experience, until he heard Scottie say excitedly. "Och aye, the road's clear, give her her head laddie!"

A quick look at Chuck showed him leaning down to do something to the controls beneath the seat, and then the carriage took off. Pretty soon it was travelling faster than a horse at the gallop, and Tom wasn't enjoying himself anywhere near as much, especially with his father laughing at the look of fear on his face the way he was.

Luckily for Tom, it wasn't long before Chuck spied other road users in front of them, so he shut off the fuel valve to slow the carriage down. When it had slowed to a walking pace, he swung the carriage around to turn back, but it didn't make it in one turn, though, so he had to pull it out of gear and pull on the brake, then put the carriage into reverse, back up a little ways and put it into gear again to complete the turn, all the while with Scottie telling him. "She could have done that easy laddie, ye didn't even turn the wheel half as much as ye could have!" Tom noticed that their take-offs were a lot smoother now that Chuck had the hang of the controls.

Tom had no warning this time before the carriage took off again, but Chuck brought it back to a more reasonable pace soon enough. When Chuck looked back to grin at him over his shoulder, Tom noticed that both he and Scottie were now wearing brass rimmed goggles, which Scottie had presumably produced when they'd turned about and prepared for their next charge.

They returned to the Scottie's workshop without any further hair raising manoeuvres after that, and he could hear Chuck discussing the conversion of the other nine carriages that were hopefully on their way from New Orleans with Scottie. Scottie's response was. "Aye, I'll build ye the carriages ye want, _AFTER_ I've finished me turbines!"

Chuck didn't seemed overly fussed about Scottie's condition though, as Tom heard him say.

"After the turbine, yes."

* * *

When he had his feet safely back on solid ground, Tom decided that a little payback may be in order. "Dad?"

"Yes Thomas?"

"Chuck was wondering who we could get to run the Memphis Belle when she's finished, can you suggest anyone?"

Both his father and Scottie rounded on him in disbelief, Scottie barked. "Ye don't _really_ think I'm going to let anyone else handle these engines after we built them, do ye Tommy boy?"

Joseph turned to Chuck. "Charles, perhaps we should have discussed this, Angus and I were working on the assumption that after we'd all designed and built her together, I would be the Belle's master, and he'd be her ship's engineer. Were we mistaken in this belief?"

Chuck put his hands up to placate them "Mr Paterson, I would _love_ to have you mastering the Belle and Scottie as her engineer. Tom mentioned that you might be interested, _and_ that he was going to talk to you about it!" (flashing a frown at Tom, as he hadn't missed what he'd done) "But I thought that you would need to remain in your current roles, doesn't Paterson's need you and its Chief Engineer?"

At his words, Joseph appeared to deflate as his aggravation (or, more accurately, anger) dissipated.

He waved the question away. "Even though it's a good money earner for the company Charles, my brothers mainly tolerate our engineering division to keep me quiet, and people are too conservative around here to embrace Scottie's engineering genius, those projects he's worked on with you have been the only things he's done in the last ten years that have been challenging enough to keep him happy. So no, they don't need us, and we want to run the Belle, if you'll have us."

"You realise that she will have to be taken right down the east coast of South America, around Cape Horn and back up the west coast to Los Angeles, and there wouldn't be a chance for proper sea trials before you do that?" Joseph nodded.

"For that matter, she'll be based at the hacienda after her maiden voyage, so if you wanted to take this on as an on-going role, you'd really need to move to California. You'd be on a hacienda outside of Los Angeles, hundreds of miles from the closest city that's anything like Pittsburgh, would Mrs Paterson and Mrs MacCallum be happy with that?"

Joseph exchanged a look with Scottie and said. "We will ask them, but my wager would be on them being all for it! Beatrice can hardly stand the people in this town, my brothers' families included, and I believe that Annella holds similar views. Most everyone Beatrice _does_ like will be at the hacienda, so as I said, I'll put my money on her voting to go." Scottie just said "Aye!" to that.

Chuck grinned at that. "Well, if the ladies agree, welcome to the family!"

It was smiles all around at that, then Chuck sat down with Scottie to go over what he wanted done with the vapor carriages that were being made from the carriage and omnibus bodies being shipped up from New Orleans. The omnibuses would involve the most work, because Chuck's design called for something loosely based on the front compartments some of his Daemon's victims had seen on the Postkutsches (the local version of the stagecoach) in Switzerland to be added by the coachbuilders to the front of the omnibus for a driver's cab. This would be similar in shape to the driver's box on the landau but be enclosed, having a door with an opening window on either side.

Scottie and Joseph were quite excited about the idea of this, as it was a new concept in transportation. This could create a carriage that could be driven in all weathers with both the driver and passengers protected from the elements, so travel in the depths of winter which at the moment was cancelled because of the harsh conditions could well be viable with one of these, but for all his excitement for the idea Scottie remained adamant on one point… " _AFTER_ I've finished me turbines!"

Chuck agreed to that again, merely pointing out that he was bringing it up now so that the coach builders could do their part first. Once they'd made the final arrangements for the Memphis Belle _and_ the carriages, Chuck and Tom said their goodbyes and headed back to Washington on a late train.

* * *

Back in Washington, Sarah told Chuck that after two days of awfully intrusive tests, the physicians had confirmed Ellie's diagnosis that she was carrying their child, and that she was as healthy as a horse. That was about the only news that she could have given him that could make him happier than he was.

They stayed in Washington for another day, talking to Uncle Sam about their plans. This was largely a fight between Sarah, Uncle Sam and Chuck, because Uncle Sam and Chuck wanted Sarah out of any and all operations, effective immediately, and there was no way that she was prepared to stop doing what she was needed for until she had to.

The look she gave Hattie said that they would be having words later, because she'd been banking on her backing her up on this, but Hattie was on Chuck and Uncle Sam's side. At her glare, Hattie shrugged and said. "Hey, this is the closest thing to a niece or nephew that I'll ever have, so I'm going to side with the ones who are trying to make sure that I get to see them."

Tom stayed out of the argument, but Sarah didn't hold that against at him, as _he_ wasn't the one who'd betrayed her (in her mind).

Eventually she beat them down to the point where she'd take less of an active role and accept extra protection, and agreed to follow Ellie's orders as her doctor, but she'd keep working on the operations up until the point where Ellie had a _medical_ reason to make her stop. She'd felt a little guilty about adding that last, but she knew that Ellie was going to be worried about her _and_ her niece or nephew to be, and so would order her out of harm's way at the first chance she got, and she wasn't about to step aside before she had to for her or anyone else. Not even Chuck, no matter how much she loved him!

None of them were really happy with the outcome of these talks, but they all knew that they'd gotten as much of their own way as they were going to, so they were prepared to accept that. As this would be their best chance to talk to Uncle Sam in the foreseeable future, Sarah and Chuck broached a few other things that they were hoping for his assistance with.

The first thing that they were after was assistance in getting the seed stock for their breeding herds at the hacienda. Uncle Sam said that he could get his horse agents to look into that, the ones who'd found the mules for them, and asked what breeds they wanted to use.

"Belgian draft horses and Mammoth donkeys, the biggest and strongest that they can find, and Frisians."

Uncle Sam looked thoughtful. "Interesting choices Son, I think I can see where you're going with this, and I'll be looking forward to seeing what you create."

Chuck nodded. "I'll also be going along on the Memphis Belle's maiden voyage, as I'm looking to pick up breeding stock of Pega donkeys, along with Criollos, Paso Finos and Peruvian Pasos as we go around South America."

Uncle Sam looked at him wide eyed at that, but the narrow eyed glare that Sarah gave him was _NOT_ happy. "And when were you planning on telling me about _this_ husband? As you were _leaving_? You just spent the last hour arguing that I couldn't take any risks because our child needs me! Well the same goes for _you_ mister!"

They ignored the President and everyone else in the room as Chuck tried to assure her that he _wouldn't_ be taking a risk, that Tom's father and Scottie had agreed that the Memphis Belle's design was sound, and that this would be their only chance to get the stock they needed to build their herd up to create what they wanted.

Sarah rounded on Tom. "Is that true Tom? _D_ _id_ your father and Scottie say that the Belle's design was safe?"

"Well I don't recall them using those exact words, but they're both champing at the bit to get the Belle finished so that they can take her out and do that trip around South America, so they obviously believe that the design is sound enough. And more than that, my father is well aware of the fact that, just like another wife I know, my mother would follow him to the very gates of hell to punish him if he died because he'd done something foolish, so I think that we can safely assume that the Memphis Belle's design has passed their test."

Sarah turned back to Chuck and said "Exactly!" before she realised what Tom had just said, and what she'd agreed to. When she did, she turned to shoot a glare at Tom, and Hattie and Uncle Sam as well for laughing at it, before turning on Chuck again. "Very well, if the Memphis Belle is really safe you can go, and I'm coming too!"

Chuck tried to argue with her on that, so she shot his own words back at him. "You just assured me that it was perfectly safe for you to do this trip on the Memphis Belle, are you now saying that you lied to me Chuck?"

"No, it's just, you're carrying a child, _our_ child, and I do not want to take any risks with your safety!"

Sarah sighed. "Chuck, I'm well aware of that, and believe me when I tell you that I would not do anything to risk our child either, but when he…. or she is born, I will have to stay behind to look after him or her. Please don't try to prevent me from having one last adventure before motherhood, not when you have assured me that it is safe."

Chuck took her hands, by this time everyone else in the President's office had disappeared to them.

"I don't want to stop you having an adventure, but as your pregnancy develops you will be more at risk, and _that's_ what I worry about."

She frowned at him. "Just how long is it going to take to build the Memphis Belle? I didn't think it would take that long?"

Chuck tried to evade the question. "Well we're not sure, it depends on the shipyard, and Scottie and his team building and testing the engines and such."

Sarah turned to Tom. "Tom, how long did they agree it would take to build the Memphis Belle?"

Chuck tried to stop him but Tom frowned at him, he should have known better than to try that. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, or vice versa in this case, and he'd already argued that the Memphis Belle was safe.

"Scottie said two months, three on the outside for the engines, so it shouldn't be more than three or four all up."

Sarah thanked Tom and turned back to Chuck. "Chuck, at our wedding, you indicated to Aunt Julia that you understood that I would never let any man wrap me up in cotton wool, have you forgotten that?"

"No, but I love you and will always want to protect you and keep you safe, even more so now that you're carrying our baby."

"I know that, and you proved it not two months ago when you ran right through the middle of the gun battle in that storehouse to save me, but I need to live as well, please let me."

Chuck nodded, apologised and kissed her. They were holding each other without saying anything when they were interrupted by Uncle Sam clearing his throat.

"Sarah? What did you mean about Charles running through a gun battle?"

Sarah looked at him from her position in Chuck's arms. "That's how he saved me Uncle Sam. He was on the other side of the storehouse when he saw me being mesmerised by Decker, or rather the Daemon inside Decker, and from what the others told me, he just jumped up and ran straight through the middle of everything with bullets flying all around him. When he got there, he stabbed the Daemon through the heart with his cutlass, that was what made it release me, and it passed everything to me as it died."

Uncle Sam went white. "Charles, you know how I love Sarah, but you _can_ _not_ take risks like that! If we had lost you we would have lost everything!"

Chuck looked at him. "Mister President, if I'd lost Sarah, I wouldn't have been good for anything, alive or dead, so the only way for us to win was if I saved her."

Uncle Sam looked at Hattie and Tom and they nodded solemnly, as they'd seen how broken he was when he thought he'd lost her. He wouldn't have been able to function if she hadn't come back to him, as herself.

Uncle Sam could see the truth of it, but it still disturbed him. To avoid dwelling on that, he asked what else they were after. Chuck hesitated, as he never thought he'd be asking for _this_.

"As you know Sir, we have well over a hundred extra people now, and with a fixed base at the hacienda the risk of an attack is higher. Therefore I want to get enough repeating rifles and revolvers to arm our people, with enough ammunition for them to be able to defend themselves if they're attacked. Of course we'll pay all the costs associated with this, but we can't request the sort of numbers we're after from Winchester, Smith and Wesson, Remington or UMC without too many questions being asked."

Uncle Sam nodded. "What sort of numbers are you thinking of?"

"I was looking to get nine dozen of the Winchester Yellow Boy rifles in Forty Six Short, five dozen of the new Winchester Model Eighteen Seventy One rifles in Forty Six Long, nine dozen Smith and Wesson Model Three revolvers in Forty Six Short and five dozen Remington New Army Forty Six cartridge revolvers with an extra cartridge cylinder for each. And a hundred and twenty thousand rounds of Forty Six Short and forty thousand rounds of Forty Six Long ammunition. That should hopefully give our people a chance to defend themselves."

Uncle Sam shook his head. "It certainly should! All right, I'll get those orders sent out… Major Paterson, I am also formally attaching Captain Stevens and his platoon to your command so they will remain at your disposal."

Tom agreed that while he hadn't yet seen them in action, Captain Stevens and his men had appeared to be of a suitable type for their operation, and said that the telegrams from their people back in Los Angeles had confirmed that their behaviour had been acceptable so far.

When that discussion had concluded to everyone's satisfaction, Uncle Sam said. "All right then, that's agreed, is there anything else to discuss?"

Sarah and Chuck looked at each other, before looking back at him and Chuck said. "No sir, I believe that's it, thank you."

"Very well, now that the business is done, you're all coming to dinner tonight. I am not going to be the one telling Julia and Nellie _this_ news." (waving at Sarah) "You can tell them yourself."

The dinner went well, though Nellie gave out a squeal that would have rivalled Ellie's and half deafened them. They held back the news that they were returning to New Orleans the next day until their time together was drawing to a close.


	12. Chuck's Trafalgar?

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

They'd been getting messages from their people in New Orleans to say that the more dirt they were digging up on Merriweather and Keller, the more trouble John was having with holding back from going after them. As Sarah, Hattie, Chuck, Tom and Hank represented the most experienced people they had after John, they really needed to get back there.

As speed was a priority over stealth in this, Uncle Sam had them allocated a private train that was made up of a nothing but a powerful locomotive with one Pullman's Private car and a baggage car hitched to it to get them back to New Orleans as quickly as possible. This train would stop just short of New Orleans and they'd be met by wagons to take them the rest of the way in.

By noon the next day, Chuck was laughing at the irony of their situation. He and Sarah had been arguing bitterly against taking any risks just the day before, but now they were on a train that was charging over the questionable old Confederate tracks that made up the shortest route back to New Orleans at breakneck speeds.

On the first segment of the trip, down through Virginia and North Carolina where the tracks were better, he knew that they were already setting speed records, as he had been calculating their speed from the mile markers they passed and they were averaging more than sixty miles an hour. But the engineer didn't slacken the pace as they headed down through South Carolina and Georgia and the tracks deteriorated, and the train was rocking so much as it charged through the bends that they thought it was going to leap off the tracks.

Whenever the train stopped for coal and water, they all got off, just to feel solid ground under their feet. The sight of Hattie sprawled on the ground clutching at the grass on one stop made Sarah burst out laughing. They all looked at her, waiting for an explanation, and when she had control of herself again she answered them.

She waved at Hattie and said. "For years, people have been debating just what it would take to frighten Carina Miller, because no matter how dire the situation, she would just laugh it off. They would never have believed that all it would take was a train ride."

Hattie responded heatedly from her position on the ground. "This is _not_ JUST a train ride and you damned well know it! You felt that damned car tilting as we raced through those bends back there as well as I did, and I saw your face, you were scared too Sarah Walker! You were holding onto your big strong husband like a terrified little girl. Don't laugh at me!"

Sarah went to her and knelt down to embrace her, and after a long, whispered apology they hugged and kissed each other on the cheek. Tom came forward to pull Hattie to her feet and embrace her while Chuck did the same with Sarah.

As they stood there, looking at each other, Chuck snorted. "Well, I'm not ashamed to admit that I was scared back there!"

Tom added. "And nor am I!"

Sarah reached out with a smile to grasp Hattie's hand. "Oh, we were _all_ scared all right, and I'm quite certain that that engineer belongs in an insane asylum, it was just that, after everything that Hattie has faced without turning a hair, and just _watching_ some of them terrified me, for it to be a train ride that made her admit to being afraid just struck me as hilarious. I wasn't laughing at Hattie, I was laughing at the situation."

At that moment, the train's whistle tooted, so they quickly made their way to board the carriage, Tom and Chuck hoisting their wives and Adele up onto the observation platform and following close behind. Hank, Weed and the troopers who were still on the ground quickly clambered up as the train started to move.

The train ride was too precipitous for anyone to try cooking anything along the way, so all they'd had to eat was bread and cold meats, but they'd been begging alcohol from the locals at every stop, as what stocks they'd had in their car had been consumed quite early on.

They'd had many more close calls by the time they reached New Orleans, but they did arrive intact. As soon as the train pulled up outside New Orleans, they tossed their bags off and tumbled after them as quickly as they could. That was an experience that they never wished to have again, but the trip was certainly one for the record books, as they'd travelled from Washington to New Orleans, over twelve hundred miles, in less than a day!

John wanted to know why they were all so white, but they just hustled him into the carriage and told the driver to _go_ , waving quickly to the engineer as they passed the locomotive. John looked at them in confusion again and asked. "When did you leave Washington? You must have headed back when you got our first messages to get here so soon!"

Chuck shook his head. "We left less than a day ago!"

John snorted. "Twenty four hours? That's not possible."

Hattie looked him in the eye and snapped. "Why don't you go back to Washington with _him_ " (jabbing a finger back at the loco) "and see for yourself?"

John looked confused now, so he asked Sarah and Tom. "Are they serious? Surely not?"

When the two of them just nodded grimly, he turned to look back at the train in amazement.

They were all still rather subdued when they got into New Orleans. The carriage pulled into Andre's house (as it was his carriage) and they alighted in the courtyard. Andre was waiting for them and Sarah went up to embrace him and kiss him on the cheek, which of course made him ask why she was shaking.

Sarah waved it away, saying. "Oh, we just had a rough train ride Oncle Andre, I will be all right once I go" (waving at the door into Casa Memphis) "and sit down for a bit..." she rubbed her stomach as she added "I could do with something to eat too."

Adele said that she'd go get something ready for her but Andre cut her off.

"Non! You are no better than Bella mon cher. Monique, please have the cook make up something for our guests."

Monique nodded and headed off to the kitchen. Adele went to argue, but Chuck pulled her close to quietly ask her to take Sarah to their room and try to get her to have a lie down until the food was ready. She nodded to him and took Sarah by the arm, leading her into Casa Memphis.

After watching them go in, Chuck nodded to Andre, saying "Merci Oncle Andre, if someone could some and get us when the food is ready, that would be wonderful. Please tell them that there is no hurry." quietly before heading through to Casa Memphis.

Andre looked at John and asked what was wrong with them, but John shook his head, saying that he didn't know, just that they were sprouting a lot of crazy talk about getting there from Washington in less than twenty four hours. "Under twenty four hours, but that is impossible!"

John nodded emphatically but Tom, who'd been collecting their bags from the carriage, slapped something against his chest and headed into Casa Memphis without a word. John looked at the note that had been slapped against his chest and then silently handed it to Andre, stunned.

The note was the last telegraph that he'd sent to them in Washington, less than a day ago. Once Andre had read it, he and John just looked at each other, trying to accept this proof that what they had, and still did, believed was impossible had actually happened.

* * *

In Casa Memphis, Chuck ignored questions about the trip and demanded to see what they'd put together while he was up north. He made notes on what he was given, and the recollections that came up as he was going through it, then put it aside for Sarah to go through after she'd had a rest and something to eat as he asked the others what was going on with John.

What came out was that every time John saw Merriweather, he'd start muttering about how he could have rescued Kathleen if that bastard hadn't blocked his every attempt, and every time he saw Keller, the muttering would be about being abandoned (as Keller had been leading the patrol the day that he was shot off his horse and left for dead). They'd also found others there who had been involved in the whole affair.

Chuck had to talk to Sarah about this, but it was obvious that having to deal with this situation and not be able to do anything about it was harming John, so he needed to get away from New Orleans until they'd dealt with Merriweather, Keller and the others. Chuck felt that the obvious way to handle this was to find a reason to send John north, and send Mei along to help him deal with it. He talked to Mei, and she agreed on both points, so he was just waiting on Sarah, and something that they could use as a reason for the trip north.

When Monique came through about forty minutes later to tell them that their food was ready, he went upstairs to get Sarah, Adele, Hattie and Tom. Sarah and Adele were looking so peaceful that he didn't want to wake them, but a decent meal would do them the world of good, so he made himself do it. On the way downstairs, he quietly told Sarah his thoughts on the situation with John, and she agreed with him and Mei.

After eating and thanking Andre for the meal, they all went back upstairs to get some rest, because they hadn't had any with the constant fear of death on that terror ride from Washington.

When they woke, they discussed the plan to get John away from the impossible situation he was in. They had been wracking their brains for a few days, looking for a plausible reason to send John north, when the solution was dropped right in their laps, in the form of a telegram from Uncle Sam.

It turned out that the horse scouts had been keeping tabs on the best offerings for most of the things on Chuck's list, hoping to anticipate the next unusual request that the President sent them. As a result, they were able to put most of them together within days, and the Frisian breeder had in turn pointed one of them to what was probably the best Belgian draft horse breeder in America.

The postscript added to the telegram 'Remember what you asked for with the draft horses' made them wonder what Uncle Sam was talking about, but they sent John and Mei to collect the breeding stock, along with the mares from General Cranston's farm, and take them back to the hacienda.

The note they got from John when he collected the draft horses just said. 'What do you want with these monsters?'

A request for clarification revealed that Goliath, the stallion, stood nineteen hands high and one mare, Bathsheba, stood eighteen and a half hands. The other two mares, Jezebel and Salome, 'only' stood eighteen and a quarter hands high. When they read that that, Sarah and Chuck looked at each other and had to laugh, as they'd certainly gotten what Chuck had asked for (they had no doubt that these horses were just as strong as they were large).

When they'd asked John to go up to get their breeding stock and mares and take them back to the hacienda, they hadn't fooled him for a minute, but he knew as well as anyone that it wasn't healthy to be constantly seething about the two men who had done so much damage to his life, and he appreciated them handling the situation in a way that let him hold his head high. He did try to tell Mei that she didn't need to come, but she shot that idea down in a heartbeat, so they packed their bags and headed off to collect the horses and donkeys.

* * *

While they had a strong case against Merriweather and Keller, trying them in court would have tied up the core team for months, not to mention exposing their identities and sabotaging all the other work they were trying to do. They all knew what the most logical solution to the issue was, and also that they'd just sent the best person for the job away because the turmoil of dealing with the situation there was effecting him too much.

Not wanting to act without authorisation (assassinating a currently serving General and Colonel would have significant ramifications), they sent the information they had through to Uncle Sam. They got a telegram back a few days later, directing them to deal with the matter as they saw fit, but do it quickly. There was no question that they were being ordered to get rid of the two as soon as possible, the only question was who was to do it.

When Sarah said that she was the one to do this, it wasn't possible to tell which of Chuck, Ellie and Hattie shouted it down first, as they spoke as one. When Chuck said that he'd do it, they had the same situation with Sarah, Ellie and Hattie shouting him down. Then Ben stepped forward and cut across all the arguments. Ben pointed out that he was the best sniper after John, Sarah and Chuck, so he was the logical one to do this job. His point was valid, but they knew that he didn't want to do this any more than the rest of them did, he was just doing what John so often did, taking the killing on himself to spare the rest of them the burden.

When Chuck stopped to to think about it though, he and Sarah took Ben aside for a quiet word. They let him know that they appreciated him being willing to take this on for them, but thought that John deserved the opportunity to deal with his demons personally. The three of them agreed that Ben would remain as the backup plan, but when they had everything ready to go forward, they'd offer John the chance to deal with Merriweather and Keller himself.

With that, they had to come up with a plan to execute the task in such a way as to ensure that the finger of blame would be pointed at one of the other groups involved in this. Their being invisible to the rest of the players in New Orleans simplified this, as they could slip in to plant evidence without the other side knowing, The evidence would show bribes going to Merriweather and Keller from the political splinter group that they were working with, along with notes that indicated that to do the things that were being asked of them, they were demanding more money.

Information would also be planted about what was to be done, and to and by whom (they wove a web of intrigue and murder whereby Merriweather and Keller were allegedly using killers for hire from the military (others who were working with Merriweather and Keller) to kill off the opposition of certain parties in the political splinter group. Some of their targets were part the splinter group, some were 'legitimate' politicians, while others were parts of the Mafia who had been opposing involvement with the splinter group.

They had every expectation that the assassinations of Merriweather and Keller would kick off a widespread bloodbath of strikes and retaliations throughout the political splinter group, Mafia, and the parts of the military down there that Merriweather had corrupted. They were, however, hoping and expecting that this carnage would be restricted to the corrupt ones, because there was no value in meaningless violence against outsiders as that would only bring more attention down upon them than they wanted.

When Chuck and Sarah laid out their plan for the others, the awed expressions around the room said that this was far more devious than anyone would have expected from them, even by Sarah's old standards, this was a devious plot. When the others had gone, Sarah turned to Chuck and asked.

"Just where _did_ this come from Chuck? This is twisted, far beyond anything I've ever seen before."

Chuck pulled her close with a smile and kissed her. "My Daemon remained in Italy throughout the late fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries because it was embroiled with the Borgia family, Machiavelli and their like. It delighted in the intrigue and mayhem, and decadence, that was prevalent then, and in fact it drove much of it."

"It seemed only fitting to turn those machinations loose on the same type of people, and with any luck it will save us the fruitless battle of trying to take them down through legal means. If they all kill each other, so much the better I say."

She looked up at him with a smile. "Do you remember how you called me devious when I came up with that plan to make Devon propose?"

Chuck nodded, looking puzzled. "Well I've got _nothing_ on you, my husband!"

She went up on tiptoe to kiss his lips and then they went off, arm in arm and laughing, to bed.

On the way, Sarah told him how her Daemon had also gravitated to Italy in the same period for similar reasons, but more for the decadence, so it had witnessed some parts of what happened, though it had missed many of the twists of the plots because it wasn't part of the game.

* * *

As soon as they'd fabricated and organised to plant all the evidence, Chuck had wired John fill him in on their plan, and point out that even if he chose not to handle Merriweather and Keller himself they'd need _all_ of their best people there to take advantage of the mayhem that they were confident would follow along from the assassinations.

In John's mind, there was no question of anyone but him doing this and he and Mei were there a week later. By that time they'd planted all the evidence needed to kick off Chuck's plan and they were ready for him. When they were filled in on what was planned for Merriweather and Keller and their associates, Mei and John's reactions differed quite a bit, as Mei looked disturbed by what they were planning while John looked quite impressed. Chuck tried to explain their reasoning to Mei, but John took over from him. One thing that he asked Chuck and Sarah for was the dossiers that had been compiled on all the people involved. He had to go through this anyway to prepare himself for his part in this, so putting Mei's concerns to rest was a side benefit for him.

John did a very good job of showing the justification for what they had planned, calling for the records of the actions and associations of a given person when they came up, and asking Chuck and Sarah to explain how they were connected to each other. By the time they'd finished, Mei was looking as though she was feeling more comfortable with this, and she understood that there was a good reason for it and that the outcome would be better for just about everyone. She also had a good grasp of all the players in the game and how they fit together after it was explained.

With that, John assassinated Merriweather and Keller and they watched the dominoes fall. Chuck's plan played out much as he'd intended. When the various players saw the 'proof' of plots against them, they attacked those they believed had been trying to have them killed. If the attacks succeeded, that took put some of the players and created an opportunity for them to go in and hunt for more evidence, if they failed, their targets would generally attempt to retaliate against those who _they_ believed to have tried to have them killed. They had to finish some of the assassinations themselves, but the other side did that for them in most instances.

The cascading retaliations were actually proving to be even more useful for Chuck's plan, as they removed more players from the field (dealing with them quite effectively and giving the team more opportunities to collect evidence), _and_ they quite often uncovered other players that the team hadn't identified yet.

One thing that Chuck was very pleased to see was that very few people outside of the players in the game were harmed in this orgy of violence and killing that he'd kicked off. That was what he'd been dreading, seeing innocents caught up in the carnage that he'd created, and if that had happened he would have been tortured by guilt. It had played out just the way he'd planned it though, and the attacks had mostly been very precise, using a bullet or a knife (generally a knife), so only the intended targets or their would be assassins were harmed.

By the time the dust settled, the corrupt military, political splinter group and Mafia in the region had been all but crippled by their losses. They had also started a Mafia war as they'd used the same tactics they had against the Tongs in Los Angeles and San Francisco, raiding Mafia locations that had been weakened by the attacks and cleaning out any valuables (they also picked up some wonderful horse stock and nice carriages that way) and information that they could find and leaving the dead with signs that they'd been killed by signature Mafia methods (Zondra was quite helpful here as she apparently started out fighting the Mafia in New York). This in turn led to the Mafia families those locations belonged to attacking other Mafia families who they believed had been trying to take them down while they were weakened.

All in all, the operation was a resounding success, it had removed large numbers of nefarious individuals who would have been all but impossible to remove by legal means (it would have been a protracted, expensive and largely ineffectual exercise which would have both tied up the team for some time and exposed them to the other side), and allowed them to gather a mountain of evidence that would help further the campaign against the larger organisations that the ones in and around New Orleans had been associated with. _And_ the identities of their team had not been compromised. Yes, all in all it was a resounding success!

* * *

All this had taken nearly two months to complete, so when Uncle Sam called for them to come to Washington for a debriefing it was decided that Jerry and nineteen of the troopers would take the horses, carriages and the like that they'd taken from the Mafia back to Los Angeles while the others went to Washington. Once their meetings with Uncle Sam were done they would visit with family up on the East coast until the Memphis Belle was completed and then depart on their voyage down around South America and back.

The arrangements were made, and they slipped out of New Orleans by horse, carriage or train to meet up where their trains were being put together. Jerry and the troopers with him would be heading north through Memphis on a train that was made up of a Pullman Hotel car, a few horse cars, a few flat cars and baggage car, taking their spoils back to Los Angeles while the rest of the party would be heading east through Mobile on their way to Washington on a train that had their Pullman Hotel cars attached to it. This time they would be taking over three days to cover the same distance that they'd done in less than a day in their mad dash to New Orleans.

When they saw Uncle Sam, the first thing that Hattie asked was whether that lunatic train engineer had been locked away yet? (Obviously, she wasn't prepared to forgive and forget for that train trip that had all but scared the life out of her.) Uncle Sam chuckled and shook his head, saying.

"Not at all. Thomas is the best train engineer that I know of, and the fact that he managed to keep the train on the tracks on that trip of your's proved that. Now I will admit that he _may_ have been over zealous on that trip and gave you a bit of a scare but in his defence, I _d_ _id_ charge him with getting you back to New Orleans as quickly as possible even if he did, perhaps, take his orders too literally."

Hattie fumed at that, but wasn't quite ready to speak her mind to the President, no-one but Sarah was likely to get away with _that_. They spent the next few hours talking through the reasoning behind the operation in New Orleans, and what had come out of it. By the end of it, Uncle Sam was shaking his head at the twisted plot and the results that it had reaped, saying.

"I know that I ordered you to handle the situation as you saw fit, but I could never have expected anything like _this_!"

He looked at Sarah. "However did you come up with such a tangled web of deceptions?"

Sarah smiled as she shook her head. "Oh it wasn't me Uncle Sam, it was all Chuck."

That statement had everyone in the room staring at Chuck in shock, because they'd _ALL_ presumed that this devious plot had come from Sarah, their spy and femme fatale extraordinaire. As everyone in the room was in on the Daemons' secret, and most of them were well educated, Chuck just explained as he had to Sarah, that his Daemon had been behind much of the Borgias' and Machiavelli's twisted machinations in Renaissance Italy, so he had the road maps for creating a web like this in his memories.

Uncle Sam agreed that it had certainly been most effective and added that, as they'd provided enough material to keep the Secret Service, Marshals, and the rest of the forces at his disposal occupied for quite a while, they were free to go back to Los Angeles and build their empire there for a while, with his thanks.

Chuck and Sarah looked at each other, and he nodded for her to respond to Uncle Sam. "Well, actually Uncle Sam, we're planning on heading off on a voyage."

"Voyage, what do you mean? Are you going to Europe?"

"No Uncle Sam. Do you remember how Chuck mentioned that he wanted to go on the maiden voyage of the Memphis Belle so that he could pick up extra breeding stock for us in South America?" (Uncle Sam nodded) "Well the Memphis Belle is the boat he, with Scottie and Tom's father, designed for us to get to and from the hacienda better. It will also take us to San Francisco quite easily, so we won't have to rely on chartering steamers when you call for us, with all the exposure that that entails. The Memphis Belle's been being built since we were here last time, and she's almost finished, so we're all going to go on her maiden voyage down around South America."

Uncle Sam stared at her, a little shocked, and slapped his palm to his forehead as he remembered that he'd been too caught up with that matter of Chuck, with the font of information that they relied on in his head, running right through the middle of a gun battle to think to ask about this ship that they were talking about, and it had entirely slipped his mind afterwards.

Now that he recalled the discussion, he turned to Tom. "Major Paterson, is this 'boat' truly safe? What can you tell me about it?"

Tom nodded. "Yes Sir, nothing can ever be guaranteed of course, but my father and Scottie have been overseeing the construction of the ship's hull, and Scottie and his team have built the boilers and engines to his and Chuck's specifications. They will be the ship's master and ship's engineer, and they have more confidence in her now than they did at the start, when they just had the designs to base their opinions on. As for what the Memphis Belle _is_ , she's a hundred and fifty five foot long ship of a new design that they all agree is quite seaworthy. Her boilers and engines are also a new design, but Scottie has assured us that they will be fine and that's as good as a guarantee as you can get in engineering."

Uncle Sam nodded again, feeling a little more comfortable with the idea of his two critical fonts of information (not to mention his ward and her unborn babe) sailing off on this ship, boat or whatever they wanted to call it. With that out of the way, his expression turned thoughtful. Sarah and Chuck caught that and looked at each other, waiting for the request that they knew was about to come.

* * *

"Would you be able to look into a few things for me while you're down there? We have questions about our relations with some of the countries down there, so it would be a great help if you could get a good read on the situation and what they're up to for us."

Chuck looked at him and asked coolly "Are you telling us that you want us to go into and investigate possibly hostile countries in South America for you Mister President?" Uncle Sam winced when he said that, as Charles only called him that when he wasn't happy with him, and he was also highlighting the risk that he was putting them into.

Uncle Sam sighed. "I suppose I am Charles, I don't want to put the two of you, any of you, at risk, but we really _do_ need to know which direction these countries will jump if anything happens."

Chuck looked at Sarah, leaving the decision up to her. He could see that she didn't want to do this, any more than he did, but after deliberating for a while, she sighed and nodded. "All right Uncle Sam, we'll do it."

There was silence after that, but after deliberating on something for a few minutes, Chuck gave Uncle Sam a very hard look and started speaking. "If we're doing this, I need you to get us fifty thousand rounds of Forty Six Forty ammunition, a hundred thousand rounds of Forty Six Eighty ammunition, six thousand rounds of the most powerful Two and a Quarter Inch, Six Pound self contained exploding cannon shells, four thousand rounds of the most powerful self contained Three Inch, Fifteen Pound exploding shells, a thousand rounds of the most powerful self contained Four Inch, Thirty Five Pound exploding shells and a thousand rounds of the most powerful self contained Five and a Half Inch, Sixty Pound exploding shells made up as fast as possible, and get me immediate access to a tenth as much of each of those cannon shells and an armoury that has the capability of producing both cannons and Gatling guns in steel. And while we're at it, I'll need another thirty cutlasses made up to my patterns. Memphis Trading will cover the costs of the ammunition so you won't need to justify the funding."

The President bristled at being ordered like this and growled. "Would you care to explain just why you believe that you need enough ordinance to start a war and access to an armoury Mister Barton?"

Chuck looked him in the eye, not backing down an inch. "If you're going to send us into potentially hostile countries to do what could be well construed by them as an act of war, _I'm_ going to do what I can to try and give us the fire power we may well need to get us out of whatever situations that may arise as a result of that. _SIR!_ "

"That will mean making up Gatling guns and Six Pound cannons for close quarters engagements, along with other Six, Fifteen, Thirty Five and Sixty Pound cannons to be mounted on the Memphis Belle to cover our escape if needed."

Uncle Sam deflated at that, as he realised that Charles was right, what he was asking of them _could_ very well result in armed confrontations. He wanted to withdraw his request, but this was much like the first time he'd sent them to New Orleans, he _had_ to know which way things would go down there in the event of conflicts if he was to make the necessary plans, and only these people in his office had any real chance of getting him that intelligence. He sighed again and called for the people from the War Department that he'd need to organise this.

The others were just staring at Chuck throughout this. Sarah, John, Tom, Sam and Uncle Sam had all seen Chuck like this before, but they'd _never_ expected to see it again. For the rest though, watching him ordering the _P_ _resident_ about like that…. Well for all the family connection via Sarah, they were expecting to be hauled off to prison, if not worse.

Sarah and Ellie had faith that Chuck knew what he was doing and John, Tom and Sam had seen him make the President back down before when he felt this strongly about something. Even so, they were all worried about what was going to happen here, and were surprised to see that Chuck got exactly what he demanded from the President.

While they were waiting, Chuck pulled out a set of the drawings for the Memphis Belle and her ship's boats (he'd brought them along to help convince Uncle Sam that the Belle was safe) and quickly marked up the mounting points and storage locations for Gatling guns and Six, Fifteen, Thirty Five and Sixty Pounders (taking into account the range of the derricks that they'd added to the Belle, to ensure that they could be used effectively to lift the bigger guns into position) and their ammunition. He also changed the specifications for the elevators in the fore and aft turrets.

He included precise specifications for how the mounting points were to be constructed and reinforced. As soon as they were done in Uncle Sam's office, he sent these off to Pittsburgh with Tom to get Joseph to ensure that these modifications were done before the Memphis Belle was launched, because many of them required structural changes to the Belle. He knew that Tom would explain what happened to his father and Joseph would understand what was being added to the Belle. He was also banking on Joseph knowing where to find the necessary additions to her crew to effectively use what was being added.

When the War Department people arrived, the President started barking out orders, quickly overriding any and all arguments and questions and ordering full compliance with Colonel Barton's requirements.

Before they left Uncle Sam's office, Chuck begged Sarah to reconsider coming on this voyage (knowing full well that he was wasting his breath) and asked her to try and get as many of the group as she could to sit out it out. He also asked her to get the troopers who'd gone to Los Angeles back across to the east coast as soon as possible, as they may well need them on this adventure now.

Sarah told him that she'd do what she could with the others, then she'd join him up at the armoury. When he opened his mouth to object, she stilled him with a look that brooked no argument.

Once he'd given in, she told him about and drew up some new designs for revolving cannons and new breech loading and recoil reducing mechanisms that some of her Daemon's victims had been looking into. The revolving cannons, recoil reducing mechanisms and the gun mounts that they would require meant that amendments had to be made to the specifications for the mounting points and storage locations on the plans before he sent them off with Tom, because they changed the size and weight of the guns, but the advantage they gave meant that he would most definitely be using them. He also multiplied all his cannon shell requirements and storage by one and a half to cater for the expected increases in the fire rates of the guns.

With a goodbye kiss, Chuck took John, Moses, Ezra, Boris and Rick, plus a few of the other men and went off to build weapons of war while Sarah went to handle everything else.

 **A/N: If anyone wants images for the ones going with Chuck, Moses is Mr Colt, Ezra is Dwayne Johnson and Boris is a young fit Dolph Lundgren. ;^)**


	13. Guns and Boats

**NB: There was an amendment at the end of the last chapter, the cannon shell order was also upped by 50% to cater for the new guns.**

 **Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

The reason that Chuck had brought John, Moses, Ezra, Boris and Rick was that they all had experience as blacksmiths and he needed their assistance with the forging work that would be needed to build the guns. In addition to that, Moses was very mechanically minded, that was why his master had had him crewing his river boat and running and maintaining the steam equipment on the plantation. It was also why he had been assigned to the Pioneers Brigade when he ran away from the plantation and joined the Union Army, and stayed there up until they were broken up. Rick had had experience operating naval guns in the war on Joseph's frigate and gunboat, so Chuck was looking to him for some insights into how to set up the guns. The fact that his experience with naval guns was of no real help with what Chuck was creating highlighted a problem, but didn't change what was being made. Chuck brought the other men along to help get the rest of the work done, as they'd be hard pressed to do what they had to in the time they had.

They worked non-stop, day and night for the next few weeks, designing, building, testing, and then going through the process again until what they produced met Chuck's standards. The people at the armoury couldn't believe what these men were creating, ten barrelled Gatling guns which had some clockwork mechanism to turn them and large drum magazines on top, five barrelled Six and Fifteen Pounder rifled revolver cannons and single steel rapid firing rifled Thirty Five and Sixty Pounders with slanted racks fitted to the rear of the gun which held six or more extra rounds ready to be rammed home quickly (Chuck saw this as the best way of getting more firepower for less weight), along with Six and Fifteen Pounder versions of the bigger guns too, and all of the cannons had mechanisms that absorbed recoil. All but the Gatling guns and single Six Pounders were mounted on disappearing gun mounts that drew on the davit design that they were using for the Belle.

When Joseph came up to the armoury to talk to Chuck about what he had planned, he had a good idea of what was happening from what Tom had told him, the modifications that Chuck had ordered, and the fact that he'd been formally reinstated as a Commodore in the Navy (Scottie had also been re-instated as a Commander), but he hadn't been told exactly what Chuck was planning, because no-one but Chuck knew that.

Chuck showed him the designs he was working on, and explained how he was planning to deploy them on the Belle. He wanted the Sixty Pounders on the deck at the bow and the stern, a Thirty Five Pounder at the front of the front turret top deck, with a revolving Fifteen Pounder at the rear and revolving Six Pounders on each side, revolving Fifteen Pounders up front and on either side on the deck atop the wheelhouse, with revolving Six Pounders on either side and the other Thirty Five Pounder at the rear. There would be mounting points between the gun mounts and along both sides of the deck for the Gatling guns and single Six Pounders that he'd created (he'd had them modify a third of the posts for the side railings to strengthen them and take the mounting rods fitted to these guns, and add mounting points to the ship's boats as well). The single Fifteen Pounders could be taken up in the elevators and mounted in place of the revolving cannons to hold off attackers until the revolver cannons were hoisted into place, and after talking to Joseph they added extra mounting points for these down on the main deck as well.

* * *

After they discussed what Chuck's modifications were for, Joseph had to revise the lists of people he wanted to crew the Memphis Belle for this voyage again. Seeing all the guns in the design changes when Thomas brought them down to Pittsburgh, he had immediately changed the crew list for the Belle to one mainly made up of men who had been in the gun crews of his frigate and gunboat, as he didn't believe he could rely on anyone else in a naval battle. He'd also more than doubled the size of the crew quarters to cater for all the extra men this would require.

Seeing the guns Chuck was creating and getting an understanding of how they would operate though, he'd wired the President from the armoury and had him put an immediate hold on the orders that were being issued to assign the requested Naval officers and men to detached duty on the Memphis Belle for this operation, because few of those he'd listed would be able to adjust enough to use these new guns. After he mentally scratched off all of those who's experience was primarily with the traditional muzzle loading and broadside cannons, there were damned few left on that list. Commander Hamblin, who was to have been the First Officer for this adventure, was the first to go as while he'd been outstanding in that role on the Minnesota in the war, Joseph knew that he would have upset the apple cart by insisting that the men follow the 'proper' gun drills, and the 'proper' drills simply would not work with these new guns. Truth be told, he was relieved about scratching the Commander as he wouldn't have fitted in with Charles and Thomas's people or his crew at all, and he had never liked the man.

Joseph wracked his brain trying to identify men who he thought would be flexible enough to work with the way these people operated, and who had enough of a mechanical bent to be able to pick up how to operate these new guns. In the end he couldn't think of more than twenty who met that criteria and had any talent for laying guns, but he had to hope that would be enough. For the rest, he looked for men who were quick on their feet, flexible enough to accept new ideas, and had steady hands and enough muscle to feed shells to these guns quick enough to keep up with their prodigious fire rates.

When Joseph raised his concerns about how few men he could identify to man these guns, Chuck just said that maybe he wasn't looking in the right places. That earned him a confused look from Joseph and Chuck nodded to Rick. "Rick, Moses and most of the other men here are handling all of the guns quite well, and I'm sure that most of Tom's men could serve as gunners or loaders for them, so if you look beyond the Navy you should be able to find enough men for the gun crews."

Joseph nodded thoughtfully, not missing the fact that this was the same argument that he'd used to get Thomas to consider adding Rick and his sergeants to his platoon. Thinking of them, he remembered that they had all served on the gun crews of both the Minnesota and the Kansas, and that made him realise that there were a number of other Marines from his ships' complements who fit the bill for what they needed too. He would have to talk to Thomas, but he didn't doubt Charles' statement that his men would be capable of serving on the gun crews. With that he said his goodbyes and headed back to Pittsburgh, to get the Belle completed and talk to his son.

Over half of the men on the final crew lists Joseph decided on had actually been on his original list for the Belle, as they were from his ships' crews back in the war and included some of the best seamen he knew. When he revised the crew lists for the Belle, he also changed back to the original plans for the crew's quarters as they wouldn't need anywhere near as many men to serve these new guns as they would for traditional guns, and Thomas' people would be making up a third of the gun crews. When he dropped Commander Hamblin from consideration, he went back to his original plan to have his First Lieutenant from the Kansas and Master and Second Master from the Minnesota serve as his First, Second and Third Officers. The rest of the rest of the men did come from the Minnesota and Kansas' gun crews, but many of them had been Marines rather than Navy crew.

The revised crew lists raised many an eyebrow in the Navy. The President had been very tight lipped about why these men were being required for a secret project, but from the men on the first lists the Navy had been confident that he was assembling a prize crew for a new warship he'd acquired through some secret deal and he wanted to keep everything under wraps until he revealed it. They didn't know what to think now though, as most of the experienced gun crews had been dropped from the list, and the Commandant of the Marines had told them that the President had also presented _him_ with a list of men to be reassigned to this secret project. The President wasn't sharing anything about his reasons, he just required that these men be reassigned and sent to the required location as a matter of priority.

* * *

By the time they left at the armoury, all the extra weapons and devices they'd built for testing had been destroyed, and they headed out with half a dozen wagons full of guns, a dozen of the Gatling guns they'd made with three dozen drum magazines, four of the revolving Six Pounders, four of the revolving Fifteen Pounders, two of the single Thirty Five Pounders, two of the single Sixty Pounders, six of the single Fifteen Pounders and six of the single Six Pounders. They also had enough spare parts to make up at least one or two more of each gun if needed.

These weapons would hopefully be enough to give the Memphis Belle the capacity to defend herself if they could employ them effectively, but with them stored away below decks, she'd look as peaceful as she was originally intended to be.

Once the Memphis Belle was launched (with little fanfare, just them and their families), they loaded her up. They had just finished loading the guns and gun mounts into the hold (except for the Sixty Pounders which went into the compartments specifically built for them beneath the bow and stern decks) when someone came down to say that there was an Army wagon train and escort at the gates with a delivery for them, so Joseph went up to sign them in and guide them to the dock where the Memphis Belle was.

When they arrived, and Chuck had presented his credentials to identify himself, the Captain of the escort handed him a letter from the President's office and they went a little way away to open and read the letter in private. When Chuck and Sarah had read the letter, they grimaced and passed it around the others, as it was short and to the point and Uncle Sam obviously wasn't happy.

'As ordered, 50000 .46-40, 100000 .46-80, 9000 6 pound, 6000 15 pound, 1500 35 pound and 1500 60 pound rounds of ammunition, plus nine dozen Winchester .46 Short Yellow Boy rifles, five dozen Winchester .46 Long Model 1871 rifles, nine dozen S&W .46 Short Model 3 revolvers, five dozen Remington .46 New Army cartridge revolvers with five dozen extra cartridge cylinders and 120000 rounds of .46 Short and 40000 rounds of .46 Long Rimfire ammunition. And your thirty cutlasses. This should be enough for your war. The people delivering this shipment have no knowledge of the contents. G'

They unloaded the wagons onto the dock beside the Memphis Belle and then quickly moved their contents into the hold without opening them. They signed off for the shipment and then sat down in the mess with Joseph and his First Officer, to ask whether their crew could handle individual weapons.

* * *

The conversation quickly got confusing, so Tom just cut across it by saying. "Look Dad, what we're asking is, can your crew use repeaters, revolvers, and cutlasses for that matter? Part of the shipment we just took delivery of is a large amount of .46 Short ammunition, repeater rifles and revolvers. If your crew can use them effectively, we'll issue weapons and ammunition to them before we pack away the rest of what's meant for the hacienda. None of us wants a war, but if we get one I for one would be happier if we're _all_ properly equipped for whatever's coming at us."

Joseph nodded. "Yes Thomas, everyone on this crew can handle repeaters, revolvers, and cutlasses, a third of them are from the Marines I had on the Minnesota and the Kansas actually, and I agree that it would be better if everyone was properly equipped. What of the ladies, are they to be armed as well?"

That led to several snorts around the table. Hattie looked at Tom and Sarah, and at their nods spoke up. "Father, perhaps it's time to tell you about us. You know some about Tommy, and you've heard a little about Chuck from him, but you haven't been told much about the rest of us, professionally. I'm sorry George, but would you mind waiting outside for a few minutes please? What we must discuss here are government secrets."

They waited as George left the mess and closed the door behind him, and then Hattie went on.

"Dad, what you were told about me being from the New York Quinlans and how I left my family because my father tried to marry me off when I came of age to further his business interests was all true, but you weren't told what I did after that. I went to the only person I thought I could at the time, my Aunt Carina who was the black sheep of my mother's family."

"I did many things, like pretending to be a man to get my legal qualifications and be admitted to the bar, just like Sarah did, but I wasn't satisfied until I joined the Secret Service through a friend of my Aunt's. I've been a Secret Service Agent ever since, and I've killed more men face to face than half the people in this room."

She looked at the others and Sarah and John waved at her to continue.

"Sarah was forced to become a spy for the Confederacy when she was eleven and she was one of their best spies and assassins, the Black Widow, until she met General Grant and changed sides, and she's been a spy in the Secret Service since President Grant came into office. Sarah is far more deadly than I'll ever be with firearms, blades, anything."

"Zondra has been in the Secret Service since the end of the war, and she's probably better than me with or without weapons too."

"Ellie and Adele are our civilians, our doctor and cook, they've killed far less people than the rest of us and we hope to keep it that way, but they're better with a rifle, pistol or knife than most men. They hate to fight, but when they're forced to they're damned good at it."

"Mei was a warrior priestess in China, she's one of the best of us with bladed weapons and unarmed combat, but she'd pretty damned good with firearms now too. I think she's getting extra coaching from her beau." Mei looked amused at that, while John tried to look miffed but couldn't pull it off.

"Johnny, well he's the best shot among us, and he's pretty good with blades and his hands as well. He was the most famous spy and assassin that the Confederacy had. They called him the Bear, so I reckon you'll know that it was him who almost killed Tommy and Chuck. General Grant got him appointed as a United States Marshal to keep him working for the Union Intelligence Service after the war. Johnny also protected Sarah when they were on the other side in the war."

"Chuck, well you know about what he did at Cripple Creek, but that's only a small part of what he can do, we're all using the weapons he's made for us because they're better than anything else available, but you know that as you've seen what he's created for the Belle. He's also the best with firearms after John or Sarah, he's up with Sarah and Mei with bladed weapons, and is probably the best without weapons."

"Tommy, you know the man that he is but you don't really know the warrior that he is. He and his men were personally selected by the President to support and protect the most important team that the government has, because he's the best, and so are they."

"And Sammy, he was good enough to be chosen as Tommy's second officer. I hear that he was a little green at first, but he's certainly a fine warrior now, as well as a good man."

"So yes Dad, the ladies will most certainly be armed, and we'll be standing by our men doing our part."

She was looking at her father-in-law nervously when she finished, wondering whether she'd ruined things with him, but when he nodded approvingly at her and embraced, she slumped into his arms in relief.

With that, they set aside enough rifles, pistols, cutlasses and ammunition for the crew and stashed the rest away behind the .46 and 6, 15, 35 and 60 pound ammunition. They ensured that the guns were all secured in their compartments, and got on with loading the fuel oil, food and water. Within a few days those who had anyone there had said their goodbyes and they were on their way to the Gulf of Mexico do the trials for the Belle.

* * *

One disadvantage of having the Belle built in Pittsburgh was that they had nearly 1700 miles of rivers to traverse before they reached the Gulf of Mexico, and even pushing the limits and risking exposing what the Belle could do in the tight Ohio river, that took them a week. The only benefit to be had from this was that it gave Scottie the time to bed the steam plant in and deal with the little problems that invariably came out in any shakedown cruise.

They topped up their food, water and oil supplies and the family had dinner with Uncle Andre in New Orleans, then they headed out into the Gulf for the Belle's sea trials. The performance of the boilers and turbines of the steam plant, and the boat in general far exceeded any expectations. Joseph kept calling for more power until Scottie called back over the telefono 'I canna push her any more Cap'n, something's like to blow!' and he told him to back her off, as they'd already more than doubled the previous best speed listed, or even claimed, because she'd passed forty five knots.

They all looked stunned at that, Chuck possibly more than most, and Joseph laughed as he clapped him on the back and said. "This is some ship that you designed Charles!"

Chuck grinned, but corrected him. " _WE_ designed Sir, she wouldn't be what she is without you and Scottie!"

Joseph smiled as he nodded and repeated. "We designed."

They tested her behaviour, both heavily and lightly loaded, and the consensus from the experienced seamen was that she rode smoother than any other boat that they could remember, and that they expected that the claims of that sailor were true, she'd handle heavy seas under load better than other ships too _._

With the core boat trials done, they went far enough along the coast to avoid being seen or heard, hauled the guns and ammunition up to their mounting points, put their targets ashore on a small island and the rocks around it, closed up the hatches and began the gun trials.

They started with the Gatling guns, very few of the men had any experience with them but that was no problem as these weren't like the ones the Army and Navy knew about. Once the clockwork mechanism that Chuck had added was fully wound up, they could be operated by one man effectively and a full winding was good to run through two of the 400 round drum magazines in under a minute. In an emergency, a lever could be thrown to disconnect the clockwork drive and trigger and the winding crank could be fitted to the rear to operate the gun directly but Chuck was putting his faith in the clockwork operated mode being more effective. With the longer barrels and other enhancements that Chuck had made to the design they also had an edge in range, power and accuracy over 'normal' Gatling guns and the men, Army, Navy and Marines alike, pronounced themselves quite impressed with them.

Next they tried Chuck's interpretation of the revolving cannon concept that Sarah told him about. These also had clockwork mechanisms to turn them, and he'd made improvements here and there to give them better fire rates, aiming and handling and built them to take bigger shells, which in turn gave them better range, accuracy and power. With the clockwork mechanisms turning them the rate of fire was mainly limited by the men's ability to feed shells into them and they got it up to nearly a hundred and twenty rounds a minute from the Six Pounders and about seventy a minute from the Fifteen Pounders. It was mainly the ones who'd been gunners who were operating the revolving cannons, and they were all saying that they wished that they'd had these in the war, as being able to lay rounds that far, with that much firepower and accuracy, would have made a hell of a difference.

Then they went to the Rapid Fire Thirty Five and Sixty Pounders. The men were dubious about firing these on such a light boat as the Belle, and the idea of rapid fire cannons was something they had trouble understanding (the revolver cannons were easier actually because they didn't need to understand the workings). Chuck tried to explain about the systems he'd added, based on something he'd read from Europe, but in the end he just told them to try the guns. They were amazed that the big guns gave no more kick than they'd expect with a smaller gun, and with that they fell to, excited to find that they could place up to 15 of the Sixty Pound shells on target in less than a minute (and that was out quite a ways). They could fire up to 22 of the Thirty Five Pound shells in under a minute accurately, and when they tried the single Fifteen and Six Pounders they found that the lighter shells increased that fire rate again.

When the gunners were confidently handling the guns, they had a brief burst of firing all the cannons as fast as they could accurately at once. When the smoke cleared, Captain Paterson looked at what was left of the targets (these were scrap iron that they'd filled the hold with at Paterson's shipyard to serve as both ballast and targets) in amazement and then turned to Chuck. "Well Charles, I think we can safely say that the Memphis Belle will indeed be an effective warship if we need her to be."

Chuck nodded resignedly, saying. "I just hope that we won't need her to be Sir."

After that, Joseph ran the men through _his_ gun drills as they manoeuvred the Belle, doing it until the gun crews responded properly to the directions and could lay shells on target when he called "Mark".

They went through over six thousand rounds with the Gatling guns, a thousand rounds with the Six Pounders, six hundred rounds with the Fifteen Pounders, a hundred rounds with the Thirty Five Pounders and nearly seventy rounds with the Sixty Pounders in the gun trials. It made a bit of a dent in their ammunition supplies, but Joseph regarded it as worthwhile to get the men confident with the guns.

Once they'd completed the gun trials, they cleaned the guns, stowed them away and returned to New Orleans to top up their supplies again (paying careful attention to how much oil she took, and being pleasantly surprised about how little that was), and with that the Memphis Belle departed on her maiden voyage.

As Scottie had determined that the Belle steamed along at a good pace quite happily on just one boiler and one turbine, and she used a lot less fuel oil that way, that was what they were using as they headed down the coast.

* * *

When they pulled into an old disused smugglers' cove on the Florida coast, the others found out why Chuck and Sarah had smiled mysteriously at the questions asked about all that lumber, canvas and paint that they took on before they left Pittsburgh, and what some of Chuck's modifications to the Memphis Belle's designs were for.

As they were taking a break from the work, John looked at the framework that was being built and said. "You've done this before, I take it?"

Once he'd confirmed that none of the crew were in earshot, Chuck nodded. "Yes, it's an old pirate's trick to change the shape of the ship so that the prey can't recognise what you are until you're too close for them to get away from you."

John grunted and Chuck grinned. "I know, who would have thought that Sarah and I'd have such devious tricks salted away in our memories?"

That made John laugh, but he looked back at what they were building. "The same applies here though, I don't see this fooling most up close."

Chuck nodded again. "I know, the plan is to leave her out in the outer harbour and use the boats to go in where we can."

John nodded, as that practice would be quite workable in many of the ports they'd visit. With that, they went back to work. It took them three and a half days to construct the frameworks, cover them with canvas and paint the canvas to create a reasonable facsimile of a 'normal' steamer. Obviously, the Memphis Belle's name was also changed as part of this ruse, and they would be doing that several times more as they worked their way around South America.

When the work was done, the main team and the ship's officers got into the boats and circled the 'Morning Star' (as she was called now) to gauge how good a job they'd done. As John had said, up close, it wouldn't fool most people but even one or two hundred yards away it should pass casual inspection, as she just looked like a dirty little tramp steamer that wasn't worth a closer look.

Sarah and the others laughed when Chuck stroked the Belle's hull and apologised for doing this to her, promising that this would all be gone just as soon as the need to hide was. They did note that Joseph and Scottie didn't join in the laughter though, as they hated what had been done to their lady just as much as Chuck did.

With the job done, they hoisted the boats back on deck and lashed them into their cradles, lashing the canvas covers in place as well. They had a head of steam up by the time that was done (part of the reason to use four smaller boilers, as they would get up to pressure in far less time than larger boilers could), and they steamed out of the cove, headed for Mexico and then Puerto Rico.

They pulled into a few ports along the way down the coast of Mexico, to test how well the Belle's disguise worked, and their own as well. Neither they nor the 'Morning Star' got a second look in any of them. When they reached Puerto Rico, they went through the same act, though they had another purpose there, as they were looking for Puerto Rican Paso Fino breeding stock. They managed to pick up a nice stallion and a few nice mares for the start of what would be the hacienda's breeding stock.

From Puerto Rico, they headed to the port of Barranquilla in Columbia, and from there on up the Rio Magdalena. The information from the Empire of Brazil was what Uncle Sam was really after because they had by far the biggest Army and Navy in South America and they were aggressively expanding their borders, but Chuck had his own agenda in Columbia, as they wanted to acquire Columbian Paso Fino breeding stock as well, so they used Columbia as a test case for collecting information in South America.

They spent a week in Columbia, acquiring breeding stock, talking to people and soaking up the culture, then sailed out of Barranquilla, bound for Venezuela. After another week of gathering general information in Caracas they headed for Brazil, stopping in British Guiana, Surinam and French Guiana for a day or two in each. By the time they pulled into a port in Brazil though, the 'Morning Star' had changed into the 'Dawn Treader' out of the Bahamas, with a slightly different appearance.

They did spend a week and a half steaming up the Amazon river as far as they could go, and another week coming back, but this was primarily for their own adventure and enjoyment, given that they'd most likely never have the opportunity to do so again, and they were rewarded with spectacle after spectacle to amaze them along the river. After they'd left the Amazon they steamed down straight down the coast of Brazil until they passed Rio de Janeiro, as there was little of interest to them in the northern parts of Brazil.

They originally went past Rio as they were heading for the horse breeding regions south of there to look for more breeding stock for the hacienda. They managed to get some good Pega donkey breeding stock that were bigger than the norm at fifteen hands for the jack and fourteen hands for the jennies. Chuck was even happier when they also managed to locate quality breeding stock of the Crioulo horses he wanted, with the bonus of acquiring a nice Alter Real stallion and mare, so the hacienda's breeding stock was coming together nicely.

They saved themselves a lot of complications by taking the ship's boats and barges upriver from where they left the 'Dawn Treader' to collect the donkeys and horses and bring them back to the ship. One of the ideas that they'd come up with when they were making revisions to the Memphis Belle's design was to redesign the hatch covers to allow them to be converted into barges to haul large items such as stock, fuel oil barrels and the like out to the Memphis Belle when it wasn't feasible (or sensible) to bring her into the docks. To do this, the hatch covers had been made double skinned with strong frames and 8" high flanges around the edge to fit over the deck coamings. Batches of plates were made up to be bolted onto these flanges, the ones that went across the ends and wrapped around the side plates added another foot to the height there, but the side plates went straight across the top, so they were four feet deep in the middle. This created sturdy sixteen by twelve foot barges that could carry quite a bit, but were fairly quick and easy to put together and take apart again.

Once they'd collected the Brazilian breeding stock that they were after, they offloaded all of the stock at the island of Ilha Grande south of Rio (few people went there because of the leper colony) and left a detail of troopers to watch over them while they went into Rio to gather Uncle Sam's information.

* * *

They found the people they had to deal with in Rio quite difficult, the language wasn't a problem as those who needed to spoke Portuguese fluently (Ellie, Mei, Adele and Sam stayed on the Memphis Belle for this) but the men there were even more aggressive than Americans when women caught their eye, especially the soldiers and government officials that they needed to get information from.

The girls hated doing this, more than their men could know (aside from Chuck, as Sarah knew he had women's memories of this in his head, so he effectively knew first hand what it was like), but it was the only way to get the information that Uncle Sam said he needed.

As female Secret Service Agents, Sarah, Hattie and Zondra all had plenty of experience with this sort of thing, but they were out of practice because the men had been shielding them from it while they'd been with the family, so it had been a while since any of them had had to put up with the type of aggressive mauling that they did now. Zondra had experienced this more recently that Sarah or Hattie, but it made her realise just how quickly this family had changed her because she was having almost as hard a time with it as they were.

Sarah actually had the quickest and most effective solution to this, as she became the Black Widow again. John was the only one who'd seen her like this before, and he nodded approvingly when he recognised it, as no-one would hurt her as the Black Widow, they'd die first.

Chuck spent a lot of time damning Uncle Sam, out loud as well as in his head, for putting the girls through this, as he expected that this type of thing would most likely continue most the way around South America unless they did something to stop it.

They were in Rio de Janeiro, gathering Uncle Sam's information for three weeks, and in that time over two dozen officials turned up dead. Their bodies had been staged so that it looked like they'd been killed by women trying to defend themselves (which was quite close to the truth), by women's husbands or families trying to save them, or fighting over a woman. They tried to use this third scenario wherever they could get away with it as it was the least likely to result in reprisals against innocent people.

Once they had Uncle Sam's information, they mailed it off in coded letters to Washington and slipped out of the harbour at night without anyone noticing, or so they thought.

As soon as they were out of sight of Rio de Janeiro, they high tailed it back to Ilha Grande. They wanted to just load the stock onto the Belle and get out of there as quick as they could, but they were there until late afternoon the following day because they had to take on the water that the men who stayed with the stock had been boiling for the steam plant and make a few changes to the Belle's appearance while they were there.

* * *

Afterwards, no-one could remember who had suggested the Scorpion out of Cuba as the ship registration that was used when they renamed her on the island (they were all nervous so it could have been any of them), but it was almost prophetic, because the Brazilian Navy certainly got a taste of the sting in her tail.

The feeling general of unease was so strong that no-one questioned it when Joseph ordered all guns to be hoisted into position with ammunition and the guns mounted and made ready, everyone was so relieved that they just leapt to the task. They also took the 'all' literally, so when she left the island the Belle was carrying two Sixty pounders, two Thirty Five Pounders, ten Fifteen Pounders, ten Six Pounders and a dozen Gatling guns, but the revolver and rapid firing single cannons made it effectively much more than that by traditional artillery standards where two or three rounds a minute was the norm. When the hatches were bolted down, the ship's boats lashed into position, the canvas covers back in place and all had reported that they were at their stations, they hoisted the anchors and departed. They had timed it to be heading south in the dark, but they wanted to get around the back of the island while they still had the light to spot any navigation hazards.

No sooner had they pulled out to sea from behind the island though when a cry of "Ships to port!" came over the telefono from the men manning the guns atop the wheelhouse. The Second Officer raced up to the top deck with a telescope and within seconds he called down to confirm that three warships were bearing down on them at full speed from the north.

Joseph ordered the helmsman to come about to a southerly heading and called for full speed from the engine room. As uneasy as the rest of them, Scottie had had all four boilers fired up and both turbines running as they put to sea, so there was no delay in bringing her up to speed. Even with this frippery they'd tacked on to disguise her the Belle had three times the speed of the Brazilian ships so they should have no trouble outrunning them, so as long as the warships hadn't seen her they should be free and clear.

When the pursuing warships had dropped back over the horizon, Joseph ordered a slight change of course, just in case the warships _had_ seen them and had big enough guns to lob a few shells over the horizon at where they'd be if they'd kept to the same heading, and called for the engines to be throttled back. There was no need to stress the engines or waste oil as they would still pull away quite handily at half throttle.

Just as they allowed themselves to start relaxing though, there was another call over the telefono, from the men stationed on the deck atop the front turret this time. "Ships ahead!"

The Second Officer raced up to the top deck with a telescope again and immediately confirmed that they had _another_ two warships bearing down on them at full speed from the south. This time he stayed on deck to keep calling down the distance as they closed on these ships.

At first they couldn't understand how these ships had been sent after them but then it clicked, the Brazilian Navy must have wired the other ports to call its ships into the hunt for them. Obviously someone was quite serious about this, and that didn't bode well for them at all.

 **A/N: The drum magazines are based on the original 1870 patent for the Broadwell Drum which held four hundred rounds (20 x 20), though the version that was generally implemented held 240 rounds (16 x 15).**

 **The revolving cannons are based on the Hotchkiss revolving cannons that were originally invented in England in 1872 as a 1 1/2" cannon.**

 **The sliding block** **breech cannon had already been invented and Krupp was making them in Prussia, but they weren't available outside Europe.**


	14. The Way Home

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will probably be changes in the first hour or so as I proof read it as well.**

With the distance between them and the warships in front closing fast, the Second Officer called down that the ship to port was an older armoured frigate of around 320 feet with about thirty, Sixty Eight Pounders on the gun deck and eight to ten deck guns, while the one to starboard was one of the new turret battleships, around 380 feet with four big guns in two turrets and eight to ten deck guns. This, and the fact that the frigate was slightly ahead, determined Joseph's strategy. He reminded the gunners of the tactics they'd used in the war and drills they'd practised in the Gulf of Mexico for engagements of this nature. They'd be zigzagging erratically as far as the enemy was concerned, but he'd be calling the direction and degrees that they would be turning and the engine power changes and then counting down to the mark so they could be lined up, ready to fire on the mark. He told them to raise the guns, but leave the covers on.

Once they'd come into range of the other ships' bow guns, they started making rapid direction changes whenever the lookouts reported a cannon firing at them (which was often as they could fire them). Joseph told the gunners to hold their fire, as their Six and Fifteen Pounders would have little effect against the warships' armour. Even their Thirty Five and Sixty Pounders would have to be quite close and placing their shots very carefully to hurt armoured warships like that, so they couldn't afford to give the game away until they were close enough to do damage.

As far as the Brazilians knew at this point they were nothing but an unarmed merchant ship running from the ships behind them, and it would do them no good to show their hand before they were in a position to derive benefit from it. The Belle was still making apparently erratic turns to one side or the other whenever they fired, and the enemy most probably believed that this was just a scared merchant steamer that didn't know what to do. That wasn't stopping them from doing their damnedest to blow the Memphis Belle (or rather, 'Dawn Treader') out of the water though!

Chuck was intrigued in the ingenious device that had been plugged into the telefono terminal connections on the bridge, it looked like some form of bizarre octopus but it connected the handset in Joseph's hand to all the telefono connections in the ship at once, allowing him to speak to everyone on the ship (with his instructions being relayed by men at each position). He promised himself to have a look at it later, presuming that they came out of this alive.

When the distance call hit 600 yards, Joseph announced. "On my mark, the Six Pounders are to begin firing on the ships' pilot houses, gun ports, deck guns and any other targets of value they believe that they can damage at maximum fire rate, Fifteen, Thirty Five and Sixty Pounders, fire on any targets of value you can damage. The Gatling guns are to target any gun crews on deck that they can hit and the gun ports. As we pass the ships, the Thirty Five and Sixty pounders are to concentrate fire on the steering gear of both ships at maximum fire rate, bow guns to port, stern guns to starboard. Fifteen pounders to starboard are to concentrate fire on the battleship's gun turrets at maximum fire rate. On my mark, come about eighty degrees to port and come to one third speed."

300 yards to the frigate was called and Joseph barked. "Three... two... one. Mark!"

The Memphis Belle turned sharply to the left and slowed and as she did so, the gun covers were removed and the guns opened up. The port side guns were silent at that point as they were pointing away from the warships, but there were two Revolver and three Rapid Firing Six Pound cannons, three Revolver and three Rapid Firing Fifteen Pound cannons, two Thirty Five and two Sixty Pound Rapid Firing cannons pumping out explosive shells at the two ships at a range of a few hundred yards, while the six starboard Gatling guns silenced the bow guns of both warships by mowing down their exposed gun crews.

Immediately, Joseph called out his next course change. "On my mark, come about sixty degrees to starboard and come to flank speed. Three... two... one. Mark!"

The Belle turned back to the right and all but bounded out of the water as she went to flank speed to shoot between the narrowing gap between the two warships, which were closing in to trap or crush her. Joseph's plan had been to slide through right under the side of the frigate to make it difficult for it to fire on them, and he was banking on the battleship not doing anything to threaten its sister ship. He'd apparently overestimated the professionalism or sanity (or both) of the two Brazilian Navy Captains though, because as soon as the Memphis Belle made her move, they both went to flank speed and turned in to ram her, firing their deck guns. Joseph called for them to come about another fifteen degrees to starboard to stay clear of the frigate but kept her at flank speed. The gunners on the fore Sixty and Thirty Five Pound Rapid Firing cannons were cranking madly to traverse their guns to port as quick as they could manage while the aft cannons remained trained to starboard.

The two warships attempted to fire on the Memphis Belle as she passed between them, but they couldn't depress the muzzles of their cannons enough to hit most of her given that they were all but right on top of her and she was lower than them, so what shots they got off generally passed over her and the only things they managed to hit were the canvas covered wooden frameworks that they were using to disguise the Belle, and their sister ships. Between her speed and their's the Belle was going past the warships at around sixty knots so the gunners on the Brazilian ships didn't have enough time to aim or reload their traditional guns, especially with the Belle's gunners on the Gatling Guns and Six Pound guns firing into the gun ports of the frigate as they passed (their guns aimed far quicker and a few misses weren't a problem when on average their Six Pounders were firing once a second, rather than two or three a _minute_ at best, and the Gatling guns were pumping out fifteen rounds a second), cutting down any gun crews who didn't have the sense to drop to the deck, but they didn't do anywhere near the damage that the two shots that the battleship got off with its twelve inch guns did, as they had smashed a massive hole right through the ship. At the same time, three Revolver and three Rapid Firing Fifteen Pound cannons concentrated fire on the battleship's gun turrets. While they couldn't breach the armour of the turrets, the sheer force of noise from the constant stream of Fifteen Pound shells exploding against the turrets was enough to incapacitate the gun crews inside, and the starboard Six Pounders and Gatling guns silenced the other deck guns on the battleship.

As soon as their Thirty Five and Sixty Pounders had line of sight to the ships' steering gear, they opened up, throwing shells as fast as they could, and just after the Memphis Belle cleared the stern of the frigate, the battleship suddenly turned hard astarboard into the frigate.

It appeared that their attack on the steering gear of ships had been successful against the battleship at least, as its rudder was obviously damaged enough to be jammed at hard astarboard. The fact that the battleship (which had been gaining quickly on the frigate throughout the engagement) remained at flank speed as it turned hard into the frigate like that also implied that they'd also managed to clear its pilot house. Firing on the steering gear and pilot house of the frigate also seemed to have been successful as frigate took no corrective action, it just kept turning in at flank speed as well.

The stern gunners on the warships were trying to bring their guns to bear on the Belle until the Belle's Gatling guns and Six Pounders wiped them out, and the Belle was pulling away rapidly when there was an almighty crash behind them.

The impact of the battleship's ram ploughing into the frigate broadside at flank speed in almost the same spot as it had been shelled at point blank range by the twelve inch guns had broken the frigate completely in two, and the frigate was going down fast, damned fast! When the cold inrushing sea water hit her boilers and they exploded, blowing out the side, the stern section rolled over and went straight under. The bow section took a little longer but it went down within a minute too. The battleship was going down pretty fast too, as its ram was half ripped off by the impact and it had rents down at least one side of its hull from the exposed beams, keel and belt armour of the frigate as it smashed its way through, but at least they had a chance to lower some of their life boats before the sea water reached _her_ boilers and they blew, at which point she rolled over and sank too.

Joseph looked conflicted as the Second Officer called down an ongoing narrative of the carnage behind them, and his face was grim as he instructed the helmsman to set the course to two hundred and twenty degrees and speed to full speed ahead.

No-one would think of questioning Joseph after he'd gotten them through _that_ unscathed, not out loud, but the faces of most of the people in the wheelhouse were saying what their mouths didn't.

Eventually Joseph turned to them and spat out. "I don't want to leave them, it goes against everything I believe in, but they have those other three warships coming up at full speed who will be able to render assistance and we _have_ to be away from here before they arrive! We have no hope of pulling that off again, especially not against _three_ warships!"

They all nodded at that as he was right, and he'd reminded them that they hadn't started this, they had only defended themselves after the two warships that the other three had chased them into opened fire on them. True, the loss of life back there was terrible, but _they_ weren't responsible for it. The fact that the two biggest warships of the Brazilian Navy, the flagships of their fleet, had just been sunk pretty much guaranteed that the Brazilians would be out for blood though.

Chuck stepped forward, extending his hand. "Thank you for getting us through that Sir."

Joseph hesitated, then took his hand to shake it with a grateful look. The others followed suit, but then they heard the noises coming from the hold and they ran to deal with the horses, because the last few minutes had absolutely terrified them! Luckily none of them had injured themselves, and they managed to get them quieted down fairly quickly.

* * *

Later that night, Chuck was up on the deck atop the wheelhouse with Joseph, Tom and the core team, discussing how they could get the Belle out of sight for at least a couple of days to change her appearance as they expected that their last known description and name (the 'Dawn Treader', as no-one had really seen her as the 'Scorpion') would have been wired all over South America by now, if not the world.

None of them were coming up with anything useful and Chuck threw his head back in frustration, but suddenly froze as he saw the constellations above them. Doing this with the naked eye wasn't accurate enough for proper navigation, but he was pretty sure he knew where they were, and if he was correct they were less than a day's travel from a spot that could be just what they needed.

He turned to Joseph and all but demanded to know whether they'd done the sightings to get their position yet? Joseph nodded, saying that the Second Officer had done it half an hour ago and marked it on the map in the wheelhouse. Chuck was so insistent that he needed to see their location that Joseph took him straight down to show him, he couldn't understand the urgency but he'd seen enough from this young man to accept that he rarely did anything without good reason.

Chuck was quite pleased to see that the primitive celestial navigation of the long dead master mariner in his head had been no more than about fifty miles out, and he leaned over the map to tap on a town that was a ways south of them. He looked up at Joseph.

"Joinville, we should make for there Sir. There are plenty of small twisting rivers going off into the jungle nearby that most would not believe you could get a seagoing ship up, but the Belle should be able to manage. We should be able to find somewhere to get her out of sight and work on her for a couple of days without anyone knowing we're there. With any luck, Joinville may also be big enough for us to be able to get some fuel oil there too."

Joseph looked him. "How can you know this Charles?"

Chuck sighed in frustration, and Joseph could see the aggravation on his face was genuine as he said. "I wish I could tell you Sir, I truly do, but it's not permitted, and it's not really safe to go into it yet either. I hope to get permission to tell you after this voyage, but I _will_ tell you whether I do or not."

Joseph nodded, accepting that. "Do you have any suggestions on how we should proceed?"

Chuck picked up a pencil and said. "I expect that they'll be hunting for us along the coast and there will certainly be more ships in the hunt now, so we'd be better off going out a ways, and then coming back in after dark. It will be dark again by the time we get here, but we should have the full moon to navigate by going into the bay and up the river, weather permitting."

He was carefully drawing a straight line that cut straight across the bow in the coastline as he spoke, and then drew another line straight into the bay that led to Joinville, tapping the turning point when he said 'here'.

Joseph looked at this and nodded, taking the bearing off the map and telling the helmsman to come about to that heading and maintain their speed. Travelling farther out at night would be safer anyway. Once he'd done that he came back to Chuck and taking his arm, pulled him away from the crew. Lowering his voice he asked.

"Charles, there is one thing I must know. Up on the top deck just now, you _saw_ where we were, just by looking at the stars, didn't you?"

Chuck looked at him for a moment and then nodded. "Not exactly, but it was close enough for our purposes yes, why Sir?"

Joseph shook his head tiredly. "I. I just needed to confirm that you actually knew what you were doing, that I wasn't wagering everyone on the Belle's lives on some wild hunch of your's."

Chuck nodded tiredly and turned to go back to Sarah, only to find her standing nearby, a question on her face. He glanced at Joseph and nodded with a tired smile. With that, they went to their cabin.

While they kept a lookout, being away from the path where the Navy should be looking for them made them all more relaxed. As there wasn't much to do through the day the crew cleaned the guns that they'd used in the engagement the previous afternoon. As they did so they exclaimed about how well this little boat had done against those ruddy great warships, and that they'd fired off over ten thousand rounds from the Gatling guns, two thousand rounds from the Six Pounders, a thousand rounds from the Fifteen Pounders, a hundred and fifty rounds from from the Thirty Five Pounders and a hundred rounds from the Sixty Pounders in the five minutes of the Battle of Ilha Grande! (That was what the men were calling the engagement, and they found out soon enough that everyone else was too.) The troopers tended to the horses and donkeys, and Chuck was sketching the new framework that they'd use to give the 'Scorpion' an entirely different profile while he and the team talked about where they were going from here.

When the sun had gone down and the stars came out, Joseph took their position. He shook his head when he marked the position on the map and saw they were only about twenty miles off the position that Chuck had marked on the map for them to turn for the run into Baia da Babatonga. He looked up the moon charts and confirmed that if they proceeded as planned the moon would be up by the time they reached the bay, shaking his head again as he thought that for someone who was supposed to be a landsman, Charles knew an prodigious amount about sea craft and navigation. If he couldn't ask where this information came from, at least it was a comfort to know that it was dependable. He instructed the Second Officer to take their position again in an hour, and providing they were at the position marked, come about to the new bearing to head into the bay, still maintaining their current speed. With that he sent a crewman to bring Chuck to the bridge to ask for further directions.

When he arrived, Chuck said that they should drop the boats to scout the way in when they reached the bay. He knew that there were some rocks and shoals in the bay (grabbing a pencil to mark what he recalled on the map), but wasn't sure whether the information he had was 100% accurate. The boats would also need to confirm that they could get the Belle far enough up at least one of those rivers to get her out of sight, and that there were no farms or people nearby. Joseph's Officers wanted to know where this information was coming from, but they took the Captain's lead and accepted it without asking.

Once in the bay, they put the two outer boats down, each carrying six men for the lead and line (trading off, as they'd be sounding constantly) and to man the oars if they had to use them, one to act as a lookout and operate the signal lamp and one to handle the boat. Their luck was good as far as the safe channels in the bay that Chuck recalled, as the boats had only found rocks and shoals where he'd indicated and the Memphis Belle made very little noise as she idled up to the mouth of the river that the one they hoped to hide in would come off.

When they began searching the waterways however, their luck wasn't as good, as the town had expanded quite a bit from the time of the memories in Chuck's head, so it wouldn't be safe to hole up as close to the town as he'd been planning. The Belle waited at the mouth of the river with lookouts using telescopes to watch for the signal lamps of the boats when they came out of the rivers they investigated. It was frustrating when they kept signalling negatives when they emerged.

Eventually one of the boats found a river that was big and deep enough to get up (just, there was a choke point a short way in that was tight, but that would help convince others that they couldn't get in there), twisted enough to get her totally out of sight quickly, and it was on the wild side of the main river so few people should come there. There was a fork a little way up the river where they could to turn the Belle around.

As they wanted to get away from Brazil as quickly as possible, as soon as they'd turned the Belle around and anchored her in the middle of the river they started stripping the canvas off the framework and disassembling the parts of the frames that were going to be removed or changed that night, working by the moonlight. By the time they lost the moonlight, the framework had been stripped back as far as it needed to be, and two of the hatches had been unbolted from the coamings, ready to be removed.

The horses and donkeys would have to stay on the ship this time, as there was nowhere to put them off, and there was too much risk from snakes in those parts. Some of the men thought that Chuck was just telling stories about the snakes, but they followed orders and anchored out in the river. When the men from the boats came back on board though they showed the snakes that had dropped into the boat and attacked them when they went under trees, saying that they were glad that they'd listened to the Colonel and had their cutlasses ready when they went looking up the rivers, so the doubters swallowed their words.

When the sun was up, the hatches were bolted together with two sets of the barge plates, using pitch on the joins to seal them. Once the barges were assembled and ropes attached, a pile of empty oil barrels were loaded into them and they were lowered into the water, then one of the boats towed them off down the river. The boat came quietly chuffing back up the river over four hours later to find the new framework almost done.

John had Weed stop the boat far enough back to get a good look at the Belle's new shape. It was certainly different, a new 'forecastle' gave her a more rakish look and extended the bow by about twelve feet or more, while the stern had been extended by about seven or eight feet and squared off more. The visible deck line between the front turret and the wheelhouse was lowered, so the covered boats could be seen now, but if people were looking for a ship that matched the description of the 'Dawn Treader', they'd ignore the 'Scorpion' as it was a totally different shape, as well as being twenty foot longer.

They pulled the boat up beside the Belle and started loading barrels of fuel oil into the cargo net that was lowered to them. It didn't take long to empty the boat and barges, then they lifted the barges back onto the Belle to unbolt the side and end plates.

By the end of the day they'd distilled over half the water they needed to top up the tanks (the boilers needed distilled, or at least very clean water, to avoid fouling the pipes, so they'd been boiling the river water and collecting the steam run off all day. Sarah had volunteered to help with that as it was one of the few jobs that she could do without being told off by just about everyone for straining herself), the canvas covering was fixed to the framework, and the first coats of paint had been applied to both the canvas and the hull.

There wasn't much to be done that night, they had men watching the oil burners they were using to boil the water and keeping lookout but aside from that, once the men had pitched in to empty all of the fuel oil barrels into the tanks and then got cleaned up, most of them were free to relax.

The events of the last week made sleep difficult for most of them though, so they were sitting around in groups, talking. The core group were up on the deck atop the wheelhouse with Joseph and Scottie, and the question of their naval engagement came up. The crew were elsewhere, so they were more inclined to talk freely and Scottie spoke up. "You have to know a terrible lot about how things are done in the Navy and naval battles to create guns as effective as what we used against those warships Laddie. How is it that someone who was never _in_ the Navy knows that much about it?"

"I want to tell you Scottie, but I'm not free to talk about that as it's part of how I know about most things."

Scottie kept asking why there was so much secrecy, and Chuck started to snap at him in frustration, until he was cut off by Joseph's sharp. "Charles! _"_

Chuck glared at him balefully. "Yes, Captain?"

"Scottie was in the engine room when we had that discussion, so he doesn't know what you told me."

That deflated Chuck and he nodded, saying. "It's complicated Scottie, but I'm afraid that I'm not at liberty to discuss where that information comes from just yet. I can only promise that I will tell you when I can."

Scottie looked confused, but nodded tersely, saying "I will be waiting for that explanation then!" gruffly.

They got an early start the next morning and by early afternoon, the 'Scorpion' was painted. By nightfall, the water tanks had been topped off, the paint had dried, and they'd cleaned the ship, loaded the boats aboard and secured them, bolted the hatches back in place and the boilers were fired up, ready to go.

Just as they had on the way in, they idled the 'Scorpion' out of the river and the bay, not bringing her up to speed until they were heading back out to sea, and they laid a course that ensured that they would stay well out to sea until they were past Brazil's borders. Only then did they head back in to the coast.

* * *

Their first stop was Montevideo, in Uruguay. They spent about a week there gathering general information (by their usual method of mingling with the locals and teasing the information out of them, as that was all they were prepared to do now. The rest of South America had nothing like Brazil's military power, so they didn't represent a serious enough threat to submit the girls to the risks and disgusting behaviour they'd had to put up with in Brazil).

They _did_ find out why the Brazilian Navy had been after them while they were in Montevideo though. Apparently one of the low lifes the girls had killed defending themselves had actually been a nephew of the Brazilian Emperor. Some of the others they'd eliminated had been related to senior military figures, so they had used the Emperor's nephew as the justification to send over half of their Navy out to hunt down the foreign steamer that had quietly slipped out of Rio de Janeiro just after he was killed.

The story explaining how the flagships of the Brazilian Navy had been lost in the Battle of _Ilha Grande_ was most bizarre though, as it was reported that when they encountered the runaway steamer on their way back from supporting a festival at Santos (translation, putting on a show of force to keep the people quiet), it was in the company of a group of at least half a dozen major battleships which weren't flying any ensigns or showing any other identifying marks. The story said that when they approached this group with the intent of commencing negotiations to secure the steamer and return those aboard to Rio de Janeiro for questioning about the suspected assassinations that had occurred, the flagships been fired upon by the warships and though they'd put up a good fight, they'd been overpowered and sunk. It was also reported that the steamer had been hit in the battle and sank with them.

They only just managed to get away from the people who'd told them that story before they broke out laughing, and they discussed it when they were alone. Sarah's confused expression suddenly cleared as she turned to Chuck, blurting out. "Woodcomb!"

The others were even more confused now, but Chuck, John and Ellie were nodding at that. She could see how she'd confused the others, so Sarah explained. "We had an altercation with Senator Woodrow Woodcomb in his home in Boston… I suppose it was about two and a half years ago now."

"While Chuck, John and I were dealing with the pack of thugs that he'd called down on us, Woodcomb grabbed Ellie and tried to drag her off to have his way with her but she got free of him, and then kicked the shit out of him, Chuck had to drag her off him. Afterwards, we were told that Woodcomb had spread the story about that he'd been set upon by a pack of street thugs to explain his severely battered appearance for the next few months."

"This must be the same thing, either the survivors from those warships or the Brazilian Navy itself couldn't stand the world hearing that their two finest warships had been bested and sunk by one armed merchant steamer less than half the size of either of them, let alone the truth that they actually sank each other, so the story being told is that they encountered a superior force and were sunk by them, fighting valiantly."

The others nodded at that, as that made sense.

Soon after that they left Montevideo and steamed across the Río de la Plata estuary to Buenos Aires, and Argentina. Once again, they first acquired some good Criollo breeding stock, bringing them back to where they were keeping the other stock before they started gathering information (but they left one of the boats and a location to rendezvous with the men this time in case they had to run again, and armed it with a Six Pounder and a couple of Gatling guns). In Argentina, they used the same routines as they had in Uruguay, mingle with the locals and collect whatever information that they could.

Sarah was starting to show by now, so without resorting to the use of corsets to cover up her condition (which she would not do even if she weren't worried about her baby) she could no longer successfully play a temptress to men with even a modicum of decency. This merely supported their decision to no longer use those tactics, so instead they played the roles of couples with their companions and uncles on an adventure, steaming around South America. This was not a hard role to play, seeing as it was quite close to the truth, though the fact that Zondra chose Ben to act as her partner in this caused more than a few knowing looks to be exchanged between the girls.

When they had been planning the accommodations on the Belle, Chuck and Sarah had decided that, seeing as Adele still came to them to be comforted over her nightmares most nights, the most practical and comfortable solution was to plan their cabin and bed for the three of them, so it was just Mei and Zondra sharing a cabin. Mei went to John's cabin for comfort most nights too, and few of them had missed Ben going to Zondra's cabin. The only thing in this that vexed the girls was that Zondra was not yet willing to openly embrace this relationship, because it was making her happier than she'd been in Sarah, John or Hattie's memory.

The sleeping cabins on the Belle were a bit too small to spend much time in otherwise because in order to accommodate the number of people they had on the ship they were in two decks, and this meant that they were less than seven feet high so many of the group could only just stand upright in them. This did however allow more of them to have private cabins, and they had decided that this outweighed the inconvenience of the low ceilings.

They spent nearly two weeks in Buenos Aires, gathering what information they could and mailing it off in code to Uncle Sam, before collecting the stock and the men guarding them, and heading south along the coast.

* * *

They pulled in at small towns and quiet coves every few days to take the stock ashore and spell them from the ship. When they stopped at a town, they spent some time talking to the people there as well. During the day they travelled in sight of the coast and took in the wild beauty of the Patagonian country and at night they'd move farther out to sea to avoid hazards that they may not see, all in all this was one of the more pleasant legs of their voyage. This was actually what they'd had in mind when they originally thought of this trip, before they'd acquiesced to Uncle Sam's request to gather intelligence on the South Americans for him.

As they neared the southern end of the mainland though, Chuck sat down with Joseph to discuss how they were going to get to the Pacific coast. "Captain, I believe that we should go through the Straits of Magellan instead of around Cape Horn."

Joseph looked at him sternly. "Colonel Bowman, we have been planning on going around Cape Horn from the beginning, I can see no good reason to change those plans now."

"But I wasn't really serious about that! I was merely trying to talk you out of doing the maiden voyage by pointing out all the risks, and with all of this additional weight on top of her to disguise her appearance, she is not as seaworthy as she'd normally be. I really do not believe that it is worth the risk to go around Cape Horn with the women on board Captain!"

Joseph couldn't hold it in any more, and he burst out laughing. "Indeed Charles, it would be a poor choice to go around the Cape when the Straits are clearly the better option, but I was impressed with your impassioned presentation of your case."

Chuck looked at him without saying a word, so he continued. "Do you really think I'm so hard that I'd consider taking her around Cape Horn in this state with your pregnant wife and sister, as well as Mei, Dona, Adele and my daughter-in-law on board? I was going to bring this up myself, but I thought I'd see how long you could hold off before you raised it. I must say, I am impressed that you managed to hold out this long, I had expected you to break at least a week ago."

The glare that Chuck gave him at that was half serious, but he wasn't bothered, he was still chuckling to himself.

He did turn more serious as he said. "If we ever bring her back down here again under different conditions though, I _would_ like to take her around Cape Horn, just to see how she does. I'm betting she'll handle it a lot better than the last ship I was on when I went around the Cape."

Chuck's icy glare thawed a little as he nodded and said. "The last time I went around the Cape I was on a fast clipper in a gale, but the captain was so afraid of what the owners would do to him if we were late he wouldn't take down sail and we were almost de-masted."

Joseph froze at that, then looked hard at Chuck as he said. "I can't wait for the day that I can get to hear what's behind these stories Charles, because I'll wager that it is something beyond the ken of normal man, as Scottie would say."

Chuck cursed his loose lips and nodded. "Yes Sir, I promise that I will tell you as soon as it's safe, but there are too many ears on the ship."

"Thomas already knows, doesn't he?"

"Yes Sir, he does."

Joseph nodded at that, and they went back to less sensitive subjects, discussing their route through the Straits of Magellan, and what stops along the way that Chuck wanted to make.

* * *

They spent a couple of days on Tierra del Fuego, boiling water to top off the Memphis Belle's tanks again and giving the stock a chance to revive out in the sun, then they loaded everything back onto the 'Neptune' (they'd been using 'Scorpion' all the way down the Argentine and Patagonian coast, so it was overdue for a change) and put to sea again the next morning.

The Memphis Belle was nimble and powerful enough that the strong tidal currents and other things that made navigating the Straits of Magellan a concern for others gave them no real bother. Those who weren't working spent much of their time up on the top decks taking in the wild and magnificent scenery, though they kept bundled up as it was a mite cold, that far down in the middle of winter.

They exited from the Straits into the Pacific and made their way up the coast, still enjoying the spectacular views. Their fuel reserves made it possible to get up as far as Valparaíso before they needed to make a major stop to refuel, this worked out well because they had been requested by Uncle Sam to collect information about the Chilean Navy, which was based there.

As with Uruguay and Argentina, they stuck to their usual methods, conning and bamboozling people to tease the information of them. Sarah was showing quite a bit by now and this actually helped them because many people liked talking to a nice young couple starting a family, never realising that they, and especially Sarah, were getting far more out of them than they knew.

They spent a week and a half in Valparaíso, with the team collecting information for Uncle Sam there and in Santiago while Scottie and his engineers oversaw refilling the fuel oil tanks, topped off the water tanks and did the necessary maintenance on the steam plant. As usual, they found somewhere that they could put the stock ashore for the time they were in port. The Marine contingent of the crew shared the duties of watching over the horses and donkeys ashore because it was a good break off the ship for them. The Marines tended to gravitate more to Tom's people anyway because most of them had served with Rick and the sergeants on Joseph's ships and they fitted in better with them than the Navy crew. Their shipboard duties were limited as most of them were more landsmen than sailors, and they had more than enough seamen to do what maintenance there was to be done on the Belle.

Another thing they managed to do while they were in Valparaíso was locate and acquire some good Chilean horse breeding stock. With them in hand, the only ones left on Chuck's list to acquire were the Peruvian Pasos.

Next port after Valparaíso was Ilo in Peru, because Chuck wanted to pick up a supply of wood from what he called the balsa tree. They were there for a couple of days while they reshuffled what was in the hold to fit a fair number of these balsa logs in there. After Ilo, they headed to Lima, where they spent another week gathering Uncle Sam's information.

They headed to Trujillo from Lima, and they acquired some quality Peruvian Paso breeding stock to round out the breeding stock that Chuck wanted for the hacienda there.

From Trujillo, their next major stop was Panama City, on the Isthmus of Panamá. They spent nearly a week gathering information here, because Uncle Sam was worried about what may happen if the United States lost influence there, given that he paid a lot of credence to the reports on the benefits that would be accrued from opening up a shipping canal across the isthmus, and that shipping canal was almost completed.

Once they left Panama, they were finally on the homeward bound leg of their voyage because they didn't have any more tasks to do for Uncle Sam. They stopped in Acapulco for a couple of days, and after that they stopped at a few other quiet ports or coves on their way to Ensenada de Todos. Their longest stop on this leg was when they put into a quiet cove to spend a few days stripping off the canvas covers and lumber framework that had been used to alter the Memphis Belle's appearance, stowing it all away in the hold while they repainted the Belle.

Ensenada de Todos had the honour of being the first port outside of the United States to see the Memphis Belle in her true state, but of course no-one there knew that. They stayed in Ensenada for a couple of days, topping off the Belle's fuel oil and water tanks, talking with the local people and taking in the culture, before embarking on the next leg to San Diego.

Putting in at San Diego was mainly done so that they could send a telegram to the hacienda to advise them of their expected arrival date and mail off more information to Uncle Sam in coded letters.

The telegram that came back told them that the lock gates had been freed up and were working properly, just as Jim Green had promised, which meant that they'd be able to sail straight up the Los Angeles River and through the canal to the lake at the hacienda when they reached Los Angeles.

When they left San Diego, most of them were getting excited, as it had been over six months since they had been to the hacienda or Los Angeles, and ever since they'd come out of the Straits of Magellan and started back up the west coast, the longing to see their home had been building.

When they reached Los Angeles and entered the mouth of the river, there were quite a few people over in San Pedro Bay trying (to no avail) to identify this strange ship that was heading up the river. It was quite a surprise to see the dock and house at Casa Memphis was apparently completed but once past Los Angeles, seamen went to the bow with lead and line and they had men constantly sounding for depth on both sides wherever the lookouts on the front turret called out a warning of shallows or snags.

They wouldn't be doing this every time of course, but there was no reliable information available on how navigable the river was past the town, so it was only sensible to be cautious the first time up the river. Because of that, it took them over two hours to reach the hacienda, but when they did, the river levee was lined with their people. There was also someone there who Chuck hadn't expected to see, as Joshua Banner was standing up on the levee, waving to him.

As this was perhaps the trickiest navigation that Joseph and his crew would have to do (turning across the river current to enter the narrow pound lock at the start of the canal), anyone who wasn't needed left the bridge to let the crew concentrate. That being said, it wasn't as difficult as it could have been, as whoever had created the canal and locks had been sensible enough to make a bell shaped bay in the river levee, so it curved in on either side and extending all the way up to meet the levees that made the lake, and that gave her a smidge more manoeuvring room.

Thanks to the unknown lock builder and Joseph and his crew's skill, the Memphis Belle didn't touch once. She neatly slotted herself into the pound lock, coming to a stop just short of the gates at the other end, and they had a crowd of enthusiastic helpers to lay to on the cranks to wind the outer lock gates shut. Once the outer gates were shut, they ran laughing to the inner gates and wound them open, allowing the Belle to go forward at walking pace.

Everyone headed up to the gates at the lake end pound lock, calling out to the ones on the Belle as they walked. Once the Belle was in the lock, they wound the inner gates of the pound lock closed behind her before moving on to wind open the outer gates and let her proceed on into the lake. With all of this, it took the Belle another half an hour to get through to the lake and idle up to the dock, where ropes were thrown out to secure her.

* * *

 **A/N: I think this may be the end of this one, as I'm trying to keep each part to accepted novel lengths. If so, this will be continued in Daemons' Children - Revised in the next couple of days.**


End file.
